Thrill Week
by Wes Imlay
Summary: A group of friends decide to have a week of fun on the colony of Canceron. However they will find themselves in the middle of a firefight between a crime syndicate and a secret government intelligence agency. A Battlestar Victorious/BS Hermes crossover.
1. Chapter 1: The Beach Beckons

**_(Author's Note: The following story is a prequel that can be read along with both my 'Battlestar Victorious' series and the 'Battlestar Hermes' series by The Wilky Bar Kid. This story will contain characters from both series.)_**

Thrill Week

**Written by: Wes Imlay**

**Chapter One: The Beach Beckons**

**_One Year before the Fall:_**

**CAPRICA**

Arthur Saunders sat behind his finely carved wooden desk and stared at the two people in front of him, keeping his face in such a way that the two men could not get a read on him. Oliver Bagby Jr. and Amadeo Galvani were here on behalf of the Colonial Finance Commission, the government agency formed to oversee the banking and financial institutions of the Twelve Colonies.

"I can assure you that these rumors you have heard about the bank are nothing but rumors. I think you are putting too much stock in the word of the First Caprica Bank," Saunders said firmly, hoping the conviction in his voice would sway the two men.

"I am sure you can understand our concern Mr. Saunders, allegations of insider trading are quite serious," Galvani said as he looked over the notes he had taken during this meeting.

"Then there are the charges of giving preferential treatment to your Caprican clients, you can see where President Adar would have concerns," Bagby said.

'Richard Adar can take his concerns and stick it,' Saunders thought to himself but knew it would be unwise to mention it.

"Thank you for your concern gentlemen, believe me these allegations will be proven false," Saunders stood and offered the men his hand, "Thank you for your time, good day."

The two men left the room and Saunders slumped down in his chair wondering who would make such accusations against the bank. His thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door.

"Mr. Saunders," Aerona Eilwen, his secretary said as she stuck her head into the office, "your daughter is waiting in the lobby to speak with you."

"Very well Miss Eilwen, send her in," Saunders said as he stood up and adjusted his suit jacket. He had a feeling Melissa wanted something but it was just a matter of what exactly.

"Hi Daddy!" Melissa shouted as she walked up and wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

Saunders smiled at her, "It's great to see you, what can I do for you?"

"Well remember when the girls were talking about taking a Junius Break trip?"

Saunders thought it over, "Yes now that everyone is out of college for now you and your friends wanted to go to Canceron, am I right?"

"Yes! Helen looked into it, and the waves at Olwin Beach are perfect for surfing."

Saunders knew Helen Octavia, his daughter's best friend since her days in elementary school, he had an idea as to who else would be going along but he wanted to hear it first, "Who else will be going with Helen and yourself?"

"Megan Jordan and Jessi Payton, you know we always take these trips together."

"Hmmm…it's just that Canceron can be a dangerous place."

"Daddy! Any colony can be dangerous, this is about the beach and surfing. What could be so dangerous about Canceron?"

"Have you heard of the Basileus?"

"Come on, everything I know about them was in that movie that came out last year," Melissa pleaded.

Saunders knew the movie she was referring to, 'Jeremy Blake' was a movie about a young Ministry of Intelligence officer who infiltrated the Basileus in an attempt to bring down the crime syndicate. It was based on a true story of an undercover officer named Martin Granstrom that infiltrated the Basileus three years ago and whose actions led to the arrest of Levi Zeresi. The arrest of the eldest son of Lydia Zeresi, the woman who ran the Basileus, was a major news story and dealt a blow to the crime syndicate.

'Maybe I am being a little paranoid?' thought Arthur. Either way it didn't matter. His daughter's eyes were lit up like Colonial Day illuminations. She was determined to make the trip and so he grudgingly agreed. He never could say no to her. The result was a whirlwind blowing out of his office. Melissa had barely left the room when she was already on her cellular phone to Helen to confirm she would be joining them.

Arthur slumped back into his chair. 'That girl tires me out just watching her'. The fact of the matter was he was envious of her youth and innocence. She still had almost no worries in the universe and yet here he was with the threat of internal investigation looming over him. 'Oh to be young.'

Canceron appeared as a small round ball outside in the dark of space. The woman standing in front of the porthole raised her right hand up and placed her index finger and her thumb around it. She then proceeded to 'crush' the planet between her fingers. She despised this world. She could have had an assignment anywhere else in the Twelve Colonies and yet here she was at the planet she hated so much by her own choice. She had business there that she had yet to be concluded and that left an empty feeling inside her. It was feeling she could not ignore.

Her thoughts on the little planet in the window were so intense that she had failed to hear the footsteps of someone walking up behind her. The man stood beside her and looked out with her. He had a small printed message in his hand that was intended for her but he chose to withhold giving it to her until she was ready.

"You know," she said finally, "from here it is quite beautiful. It does have some incredible sights but its what you see when you really get down to it that it's all a lie. They certainly gave it the right name. It has a cancer that's spreading almost out of control eating away at the healthy parts."

"You always did hate this planet," said the man. "Sometimes you just have to sweep away the past and move on. You told me that, remember?"

"So I did," quipped the woman who found it amusing to have her own advice given back to her. "You have something for me?"

**_FASTSTAR EURYLADE_**

"Yes Major, from MoI headquarters on Picon."

Captain Keene Barron handed his superior officer, Major Galit Malka, the communiqué that had just been received by the communications officer. She took it and opened it. The message simply said; Report from human intelligence sources at Constellation indicates efforts are underway for major operation. Have team ready for deployment and possible ship-to-ship interception and retrieval.

Constellation was the MoI term for Canceron. Put simply the message implied that an operation was about to begin on or around the planet in the distance. Malka folded the letter back up and placed it in her pocket.

"There's nothing more?" she asked him mildly frustrated at the quite vague message.

"No Major," replied Barron.

"Very well then, make preparations for ship-to-ship intercept. Assemble the usual guys!"

Barron nodded and proceeded to carry out his orders. Although the message wasn't clear about what was ahead Galit Malka suspected that the Basileus were somehow involved. She thought it might be prejudice towards the organization that had been a thorn in her side for almost five years since that fateful mission to rescue the President's sister and niece. Since then it seemed like she had barely left the god forsaken crime infested colony of Canceron.

The Tiger-class Faststar Euryale was an illegal vessel operated by the Ministry of Intelligence in violation of the Articles of Colonization. Her twenty six crew lead by Major Galit Malka were waging a war in the shadows against terrorist groups, criminal organizations and pirate rings throughout the Twelve Colonies. For that reason the ship sat far off the normal shipping lanes to and from the Colony waiting for the orders to leap into action and then disappear into the shadows once the job was done with no recognition whatsoever. The crew was composed of committed individuals to say the least. They had to be for this line of work.

Some, including Malka, went so far as to be officially listed as dead!

**_AMARNA, CANCERON_**

The transport carrying Melissa Saunders and her friends landed at the Amarna Metropolitan Spaceport. The four girls were out of their seats and making their way towards the exit as quickly as they could manage. This was the first day of their week of good times to be had on Canceron and they had no intention of wasting a second of this trip. Waiting outside was the bright yellow sports car that Helen Octavia's parents had provided them for this trip. Helen's father knew Arthur Saunders from the First Cylon War. The two of them had considered going into business together but instead they went their separate professional ways. Helen's father run a shipping business out of Delphi on Caprica to, among others Canceron, and he had his office make the arrangements for renting the car.

Helen's parents had insisted that she be the only one to drive the car but Helen was not a particularly confident driver and so it was down to Melissa to drive. It was time to check into their hotel and then they would be relaxing on the beach and playing in the sea when they were not surfing.

The Dannika Hotel was the premier five-star hotel found in Amarna, only the best could afford to stay here. The four girls had the top penthouse suite and intended to make the most of it. As they settled into their room Megan Jordan found herself staring at the magnificent beach outside. In some way it was calling to her and she felt compelled to answer it.

"What are we waiting for?" Megan exclaimed as she looked back at her friends who were still packing away their things.

The girls got their beach clothes on and basked in the midday sun as they walked along the boardwalk. Amarna was a beautiful place. Everywhere there seemed to be a pleasant calm covering over every sight and sound they encountered. They saw a restaurant ahead that was called the "Kanani Grille" and it seemed like a place they could stop and get a bite to eat before they went down to the beach.

"I say we stay here all day," Melissa announced as the girls were brought their first round of drinks.

"All day and all night," Helen said as she held her drink up to add emphasis.

"That would be a mistake," a woman's voice from nearby said.

"You know you shouldn't listen in like that," a man said in reply.

Melissa turned to see a young woman who looked to be about her age and a man who looked more like he was in his early to mid thirties. They were sitting at a table behind their stools at the bar. It seemed they weren't eavesdropping but they had to have heard them talking.

"When they're being that loud, it's not hard to overhear," the woman said as she took a sip from her drink.

"Excuse me, private conversation here!" Jessi Payton said with an annoyed and arrogant edge to her voice.

"Funny, I didn't think that passed for 'private'. Besides this is a 'private conversation' too," the young woman said as she did air quotes around the term 'private conversation'.

Melissa could feel the air turning distinctly sour. She knew her friends well and as such knew that they had a flair for attracting trouble. She didn't want to include in her first call home the fact they had been arrested for rowdy behavior in a bar.

"Why would it be a mistake to stay here?" Melissa asked, hoping to satisfy her curiosity and diffuse any further hostility.

"Let's just say that at night here on the beach there can be trouble from a certain group," the man said.

Melissa tried to get a read on him but his eyes were hidden by a pair of dark sunglasses and his face seemed to not give away any emotion.

"Let me guess, The Basileus," Megan stated as though she were a bored child hearing a lecture by a parent.

"As a matter of fact yes," the woman said.

"We've heard the stories, and even saw that movie about them," Helen explained as though she were some expert on the dangers of organized crime and had somehow rated the Basileus as quite low down the scale.

"That movie," the man said shaking his head "does not even do the Basileus justice. As bad as they may have seemed trust me they're worse. You'd be amazed at what they do here, think about it…all crime runs through them on this colony."

"It's true, there is something to be said about how powerful they are and the kind of trouble they have their hands in," the woman said.

"Right, like you're such an expert on them!" Jessi said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"We know them well…very well," the man said as he stood up and motioned with his head for the woman to join him. Each of them then took a seat at the left and right of where the girls sat. The woman sat right next to Melissa.

"I'm Lacey and this gentleman is my cousin Scott, we grew up here on Canceron and we know the Basileus better than anyone could hope to. We're about to leave, but just take our advice about the beach…it's a dangerous place at night. More dangerous than you can imagine."

"Well bye!" Helen said with a wave of her hand, Megan and Jessi followed suit. Melissa looked into Lacey's eyes after she had finished speaking. There was something about them that were screaming at her to take heed of her warning. Realizing that their efforts to dissuade the group were in vain both Scott and Lacey got up and left. Melissa sat there and for the first time wondered if they should heed the words of Scott and Lacey…whatever their last names were.

"Don't listen to them, they were just trying to screw with us," Helen took another drink from her glass and ordered a refill.

"How could they know so much about the Basileus?" Melissa asked, genuinely curious.

"They're probably making it up or better yet…" Jessi said before dropping her voice to sound more ominous, "They're from the Basileus!"

Scott and Lacey Tolan walked along the beach, for the most part the two cousins stuck to small talk but they knew each other well enough to know that there was something on each of their minds.

"A few more weeks and then I'll be going back to the Academy," Lacey said as she stared out into the ocean not focusing on anything in particular.

"Hard to believe you've already had your first year there Lace you've proven you're up to the challenge," Scott said, turning his attention to a sea shell his foot passed.

"It's what I've always wanted; it still seems daunting when I think about it."

Scott reached over and patted her on the shoulder, "You're up to it, and you wouldn't have been accepted if you weren't."

"My Scott, always there to reassure me," Lacey smiled at him, when she thought about it they were more like brother and sister than cousins.

"I hope we were able to reassure those four girls, they don't know what they're going to wander into tonight if they go to the beach."

Lacey shrugged her shoulders, "We can at least say we tried; besides you know we tend to stay out of the 'family businesses."

"Still though, I think I may try to use my contacts to keep an eye out for them just in case they're stupid enough to try something," Tolan heard the whispers of what the Basileus were up to. He stayed out of the crime syndicate's business as best he could though there were times he could be slightly pulled back in. The recent outing of the Ministry of Intelligence's war against the crime syndicate was his doing, the price he had to pay to enlist his Aunt Lydia's help in the rescue mission he led five years ago.

President Adar's sister and niece had been kidnapped by the Sagitarron Liberation Army, and he was the first choice to lead the rescue mission. The plan had been to use his connections with the Basileus to procure weapon shipments that would serve as a cover for the rescue mission. That part of the plan had worked, but it would cause Scott to owe his aunt, Lydia Zeresi who was the head of the crime syndicate, a rather large favor somewhere down the road. When the Ministry of Intelligence began an illegal campaign of assassinating the high-ranking members of the Basileus, Lydia Zeresi called in her favor, and Scott became a confidential informant to the Caprica City Times. He leaked the information that would cause the MoI to abandon its plans to kill off the higher echelon of the Basileus.

**_DANNIKA HOTEL_**

The four of them had gone back to the hotel to change into their beach wear for their plans to hit the clubs and spend the night on the beach relaxing and doing whatever their minds could come up with.

Melissa changed into her outfit and as she was looking into the mirror she felt her stomach began to clench a bit, as though something she had for lunch did not agree with her. She leaned over slightly and clutched her stomach, wondering just what was causing her to feel a wave of nausea that seemed to be slowly coming over her.

"Hey girl, are you going to be alright?" Helen Octavia asked when she walked into the room and saw her friend.

"I should be alright, just something I ate probably. Don't worry about me, it'll pass…" Melissa tried to put a smile on but it took some effort.

"Alright, well we have a surprise that came here this morning!" Helen exclaimed with joy as though it was an early birthday present for her.

"Just what might that be?" Melissa asked as she tried to put away the sick feeling that had hit her.

"Do the names James Livingston, Garrison Brown, Raymond Sharpe, and Jarell Cashmere mean anything to you?" Helen asked with a sly grin.

Melissa's eyes got wide, "You mean they're here now?"

"They got word we were here and decided to use their break from college to come see us lonely women," Helen said in reference to the Junius Break the boys had from the University of Apollo on Caprica.

'Just great,' Melissa thought knowing that James David 'J.D.' Livingston would be here and she really felt sick. Suffice it to say she was going to have to put on a brave front and do what she could to not get sick in public.

**_FASTSTAR EURYALE_**

"A message just arrived for you Major, it's directly from Director Schwtizer," Keene Barron said as he delivered a recently delivered message. Adrian Schwtizer had been promoted to Director of the MoI shortly after the Valkyrie mission; it was his choice to unleash Galit Malka and her army of MoI agents on the Basileus.

"Thank you," she said as she took the message from him and started reading.

**_Attn: Major Galit Malka_**

**_Subject: Arms Shipment on Canceron_**

**_Major Malka, it has come to our attention that a large shipment of weapons is scheduled to be delivered by shuttle to the colony of Canceron. This shuttle is inbound from Virgon, and is scheduled to land of a freighter in the Marius Sea before being delivered to the Basileus at the docks on Olwin Beach. Intercept the freighter, and board with your party and confiscate the shipment. Deliver it to the docks and when there initiate protocol 187. No further requirement._**

**_Adrian Schwtizer_**

**_Director of Ministry of Intelligence_**

**_Umquam in Tutela_**

The latter was the MoI motto: Ever on Guard.

Galit folded the paper and put it in her pocket, the freighter mentioned earlier in the report was the SV Valeriu, according to the technical specs the transport shuttle had a crew of fifty, but with her specially trained agents they would be more than able to take the shuttle and pilot it with a skeleton crew. This was her chance to enact more revenge, maybe even expel more of the pain that had stayed with her since that day on the SLA base when she had nearly died. She had recently had her last psych evaluation, and part of what bothered her was how the psychologist had described her, 'A weapon that could be malfunctioning badly'

**_OLWIN BEACH, CANCERON_**

The Canceron sun was beginning to set now, and along the boardwalk walked Scott and Lacey Tolan. The beach was becoming deserted now, as most people preferred to stay at the beach while the sun was out.

"What do you want to do tomorrow?" Scott asked his cousin.

"I don't know Scott, what do you want to do?" Lacey asked in reply.

"First this week is about you, you're the one who's going off to the Academy."

"True, but you are going back on deployment and Caprica will need you for its defense. So therefore, what do you want to do?"

"Oh look, it's our friends from earlier today and they have more company with them," Scott pointed out to the group that included the girls from the restaurant earlier as well as four men who they had yet to meet.

"Looks like they're not going to take our advice after all," Lacey observed as the two groups came closer to each other.

"Well if it isn't our two good citizens who wanted us to get away from here," Helen Octavia said once they got close enough to talk to Scott and Lacey.

"Hey baby, is this the one who threatened you?" one of the men said as he inched closer to where the two had stopped walking.

"Threatened who?" Scott asked, wondering what in the worlds had been said.

"I heard you threatened my girl," the young man said as he pulled Helen closer to him.

"Your girl needs to get her story straight," Scott said evenly.

"You're calling her a liar then?"

"I suppose I am whoever you are."

"The name is Jarell Cashmere, you would know it if you lived on Caprica."

"You assume I give a damn, that's cute."

"You're asking for trouble, you know that right?" another of the men added.

"Ray, don't go stirring things up!" Jessi Payton said to Raymond Sharpe before he could add more of his two cubits to the conversation.

"Truth is, you lay a hand on me and you'll regret it," Scott said to Cashmere in the same tone of voice he had been using the whole conversation.

"Is that right? Well what if I laid a hand on this sweet little number you have here with you?" Cashmere leered at Lacey who moved closer to Scott.

"Then you are really going to regret it," Scott said as he dropped his even tone and took on an icier one.

"Four of us and one of you…seems the odds aren't in your favor," Cashmere said in an attempt to intimidate the man.

"I've had worse, besides you do know where you are, right?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, we're on Canceron!" Cashmere said in exasperation as though he was talking to an idiot.

"Good, you did learn the Colonies in grade school. Did your girl tell you what our names were?"

Cashmere leaned in close to Helen who whispered something in his ear, "Yeah you're Scott and her name is Lacey, so?"

"Ah yes, we did not give our last names. That would be…Tolan, as in the Basileus Tolans. You might want to think about that for a second," Scott watched as his words took effect on Cashmere. It seemed the man knew exactly what the implications were but was stuck in the corner he had backed himself into in order to impress Helen Octavia.

Melissa watched this and felt powerless as to how to stop the situation from spiraling out of control. Though the more Cashmere and Scott stared each other down, the less she was able to focus on what was going on. The sickness she felt earlier seemed to have redoubled its effort to incapacitate her. She stumbled and thankfully James Livingston was there to catch her. She felt her stomach start to heave, and pushed him away as she stumbled forward and fell on her knees right in front of Scott Tolan. He leaned down to ask if she was alright and she would have answered him if she had not let loose the contents of her stomach directly onto the man's lower body.

The group stood stunned at the suddenness of what they had just witnessed. The youths had been so caught up in their own desire to party and enjoy themselves that they had failed to notice their ailing friend; the first one to make a move was Scott. The man simply patted Melissa on the shoulder before standing up to take his mobile phone out of the front pocket of his shorts. He calmly made a call to what sounded like a hospital then ended the call before motioning for Lacey to come over to him.

"Listen Lace, I just placed a call to Cygnus Medical Center. They're going to be waiting for our friend here at the Emergency Room. I want you to get her into my car and have her there as quickly as possible, understood?"

Lacey nodded and bent down to check on Melissa.

"Wait just a minute, we don't even know you!" Megan Jordan declared, suddenly feeling protective of her friend.

"I'll go with her, I want to make sure she's alright," J.D. Livingston said as he bent over to help Lacey assist Melissa to her feet.

"Good, the rest of you just wait here until I can buy me some new clothes," Scott said as he motioned towards a nearby clothing shop.

The other three couples nodded their understanding, and once both Tolans had left along with Melissa and J.D. they promptly walked away in a hurry to leave the scene as if to walk away was to cleanse themselves of their responsibility to their friend. None of them wanted their holiday ruined not even by a sick friend.

"I'm telling you, if Melissa hadn't have gotten sick I'd have taken that jerk," Cashmere said confidently, which earned him a long kiss from Helen Octavia.

"You'd have wiped the floor with him baby!" Helen said with a wicked grin.

"Don't worry Jer', we'd have had your back," Garrison Brown said as he walked up to slap Cashmere on the shoulder.

A couple walked past them, but the group did not pay them any heed. It was not until the man and woman came up behind them suddenly that they got the group's attention.

"Hey guys, where are you heading?" the man asked as he held out his hand for a handshake.

Everyone in the group exchanged handshakes before the woman spoke, "David and I were just heading down to the docks for some extreme sports." The couple had given their names as David Mattson and Alice Rosana.

"What do the two of you have in mind?" Helen asked.

"First we were going to this new paintball center that opened up in this old dock warehouse and then we were taking a shuttle up to the Asterion Station for some high-orbit extreme space-walking. You want to come with?" Mattson said as he flashed a charming smile that seemed to get through the girls' defenses.

"I don't know if we should," Raymond Sharp said, wondering if they should trust this couple they just met. They seemed to come on quite strong and this rang an alarm bell in his mind for a reason he couldn't quite fathom himself just yet.

"Come on, please! We promise it will be a thrill the likes of which you never had," Rosana said almost pleadingly.

The group huddled and after a moment of fast paced nattering in which nothing was seriously considered except for the potential for fun they made their decision to go.

"Great, just follow us!" Mattson said and along with Rosana they led the way to the Rutledge docks in the warehouse district of Olwin Beach.

**FASTSTAR EURYALE**

The _Euryale_ was standing out of the way of the incoming traffic to Canceron, the hope was that they would be able to board the freighter and eliminate the crew quickly and efficiently. The cover of a Colonial Fleet vessel served to mask their real purposes until it was too late. Rarely would a ship try to turn down a boarding request from the military vessel, and that was something Galit Malka counted on in this case.

She dressed in her black battle gear, as always she would lead the strike team with Barron coming in behind her. His training as a Colonial Marine would be invaluable in this operation, and he knew the right crew to select for their six person fire team. Accompanying them would be Joseph Marshall, Armen Chertavian, Paula McElwain, Lina Balaconis, Robert Alistair, and Louis Cassani. These were former military officers who had been recruited by the MoI, and all had volunteered to join Malka's crew in the shadow war against crime and terrorism across the Twelve Colonies of Kobol although Malka had invested personal interest in targeting the Basileus directly.

The compartment the team assembled in was located near the airlock; they would stay out of view until a seal had been obtained with the freighter. Malka waited patiently to hear word that they would rendezvous with their target soon. She was not sure how patient she could be but she was giving it her best effort. The phone on the far bulkhead began to ring and she made her way over there quickly and picked up the receiver.

"Malka," she said simply.

"Major this is Lt. Gravina, I have received word from Lt. Furse that we will be approaching the target in the next five minutes," Lt. Carlos Gravina was the second officer of the Faststar, after Malka and Barron. While he was busy as Officer of the Deck, Tactical was covered by Lt. John Furse, a recent arrival to the crew of the Euryale.

"Thank you Mr. Gravina," Malka said and hung up the phone.

"What's the news?" Barron asked once Malka had set the receiver back in its cradle.

"We have five minutes until we intercept the freighter, do a final check of everyone's weapons and then prepare to board."

"Major Malka a Priority One message has arrived from Headquarters," Chad Teuton, the ship's communications specialist, announced over the room's intercom. Chad Teuton had served on the Battlestar _Cerberus_ up until just over five months ago. He was a gifted communications officer which was why he was headhunted for this assignment.

"Thank you Mr. Teuton," Malka said and went to one of the computer consoles located in the room. What she read showed her just how valuable this target was to the MoI. The message stated: **_Fabius and Persephone known to be operating in area of Olwin Beach, intel suggests will be at docks tonight for weapons delivery. _**

Those were the codenames the MoI had assigned to none other than Drake and Caelie Tolan. The two were in their mid-twenties, and had been married for five years. They also ran the gambling, prostitution, and human trafficking rings on Canceron. They were considered a high-ranking target and should be disposed of if the opportunity presented itself.

Malka's thoughts filled with a violent glee at the prospect of taking these particular bastards down. She was an orphan since birth when she was left on the steps to the Temple of Artemis. In the orphanage she was just a number. She never felt like a person but rather a commodity or item and that was how these people viewed their unfortunate victims.

"Two minutes!" announced Barron to the team.


	2. Chapter 2: Any Means Necessary

_**Chapter Two: Any Means Necessary**_

_**Faststar Eurylade**_

"SV _Valeriu_, this is Colonial warship _Eurylade_. You are ordered to stop your engines and prepare to be boarded," Chad Teuton said through the receiver at the Communications Station in the CIC of the Faststar _Eurylade_.

"A response yet Mr. Teuton?" Lt. Carlos Gravina, the second officer of the Euryale and currently Officer of the Watch, asked the former Petty Officer of the Colonial Fleet.

"Not yet sir, so far no response."

"Mr. Furse, ready a warning shot two hundred yards ahead of the forward bow," Gravina ordered Lt. John Furse, the on-duty Tactical Officer, in an attempt to get the freighter to slow down.

"Ready!" announced Furse after having trained the forward guns to a point ahead of the _Valeriu_.

"One second burst, engage!"

A moment later the guns of the Faststar came to life spewing four high energy shells across the forward bow of the freighter. Just one hit would have been enough to puncture the unarmored hull of the freighter but that was not the intention. Gravina waited to see if it would be enough, in not then more drastic action would be required to bring the Valeriu to a stop.

"Sir, _Valeriu_ is coming to a stop," Furse announced.

"I am receiving word from the _Valeriu_, they have agreed to be boarded," Teuton said.

Gravina walked over to Communications and took the receiver from Teuton. Teuton had already patched him through to whom he wanted to speak and a few seconds later the voice came over the line.

"Malka!" announced the voice over the line.

"Major, the _Valeriu_ has come to a stop and is ready to be boarded," Gravina said with his clipped efficiency.

"Thank you Mr. Gravina, stand by and I will alert you in case your assistance is needed," Malka said before the line went dead.

"Alright team," she began addressing her small group, "Barron and I will head to the CIC. Cassani, Chertavian, and Balaconis are going to be in charge of securing Engineering. Marshall, McElwain, and Alistair are responsible for securing the berthing sections as well as the cargo holds. The plan is to execute Case Maroon, which should allow us to secure the vessel without having to fire a shot. Make sure your life support masks are in place and do not remove them for any reason. If you are fired upon you have authorization to use lethal force, do not hesitate to use it. Am I clear?"

"Aye aye, ma'am!" the Marines shouted in unison.

Malka and her Marines waited for the airlock to pressurize and open, allowing access to the freighter. Entering first, Malka had her weapon raised in anticipation of finding resistance. Instead there was nobody waiting there for them, something she found odd. A search of the immediate area by her and Barron turned up none of the crew members nearby.

_**SV Valeriu**_

"It's clear Major," Barron said as he brought up a display on the right arm of his combat suit. One of the advantages of the MoI was the experimental technology being developed secret laboratories spread out among the Cyrannus System. A moment later a schematic of the _Valeriu_ appeared on the small LCD screen, which Barron arranged to have sent to the other members of the team.

"Good work Keene," Malka said with an approving look at her friend and most trusted lieutenant, "everyone to your assigned area. Stay in constant wireless contact with each other and at the first sign of trouble don't hesitate to act."

Malka and Barron navigated the ladders and corridors until they reached the Control Center of the Valeriu. There was a spartan look to the room; Malka noted a set of doors that according to the plans of the ship led to the pilothouse.

"Who's in charge here?" Malka asked the men and women of the crew assembled in the room.

"That'd be me," a large barrel chested man said as he stepped forward, "Captain Taylor Baines, what can I do for you?"

"Major, we have reached Engineering and are rounding up the crew. Some are putting up resistance but we have the situation under control," Louis Cassani reported.

"Yes Mr. Baines, I'd like to clarify something. We received a report that this vessel was carrying weapons destined for the hands of the Basileus, care to explain that to me?" Malka said as she walked closer to Baines.

"That report is rubbish. We're carrying medical supplies for an outbreak of Persephone Fever in Iopolis."

A report came in from Paula McElwain, 'Weapons found in Cargo Bay Three.'

"Everything alright?" Baines asked.

Malka simply smiled at him and made sure her helmet was secure and airtight, it would have to be to execute Case Maroon. She quickly typed a message to McElwain and nodded to Barron.

A few seconds later came the hiss of air escaping the room; Case Maroon was being put into effect. Malka had decided that instead of risking the lives of her people in a needless firefight she would simply bleed the atmosphere out of the _Valeriu_ until its crew was dead.

It did not take the crew long to realize what was happening. Baines looked around searching for the origin of the hissing before turning to Malka. "What are you doing?" he asked, his voice gripped with the kind of desperate terror only a man in his last few seconds of life knows. He surged towards Malka and caught hold of her arms desperately pleading for his life.

Malka wriggled out of his grasp and punched him in the face. Baines fell to the floor with a thump but he nevertheless persisted and began to crawl back towards her tugging on the bottom of her trousers in a pitiful manner. Rather calmly, Malka aimed her rifle at Baines's head and fired. The bullet punctured his skull and his head fell limply on the deck as blood poured from the wound. Malka just watched as the rest of the crew suffocated in terror.

She put herself into a frame of mind that these were not people but targets to be destroyed. It used to work for her but these days she had simply become accustomed to death. Death that she had caused. Nevertheless it made her sick to think of what she had become. She had always been considered a weapon by her superiors but she had evolved beyond that. She was now a tool of Hades sent forth to the Twelve Worlds to vent his fury upon the wicked.

If only it was that neat and tidy.

_**Amarna, Canceron:**_

The car weaved in and out of traffic on Blackwell Avenue, speeding enough that there was a chance a police office might pull them over.

"You sure you know where we're going?" J.D. Livingston asked Lacey Tolan.

"For the fifth time, I know exactly where I'm going!" Lacey said as she tried to hide her growing irritation with the man from having been asked the same question several times during the course of the journey thus far.

"It's just that I'm worried about her," Livingston said in reference to Melissa Saunders, the now unconscious young woman laying on the backseat of Scott Tolan's red and black Dorado sports car.

"I understand that, but this conversation got old the first time we had it," Lacey said as she moved the car over into the left lane in order to move into an upcoming turn lane.

"Sorry, I just want her to be ok."

"Ah….she's your girlfriend?" Lacey asked.

"Not officially, but I'd like to think she's interested in the job," Livingston said as he looked back again at the unconscious Melissa Saunders.

"The way you worded that shows how much of romantic you are," Lacey deadpanned.

"I guess so. I still think we should have called an ambulance rather than take her ourselves."

"In the time it would take to get here we'd already be at the hospital. This isn't Caprica you know."

_**Olwin Beach, Canceron:**_

Scott Tolan left the group and walked to the 'Absolute Andy's' clothing store. After having floated around the store for up to a quarter of an hour he picked up a new outfit, one that just barely piqued his interest, and tried it on in the dressing room.

'I look like a damn tourist,' he thought to himself as he looked in the dressing room's mirror. Lacey had his car, and he did not keep any sort of beachfront residence here or in the area around Amarna so there was only one course of action he could think of. He took his vomit-covered clothes, stuffed them into the plastic bag, and tied the bag shut so he could throw it away.

"Are the clothes to your liking?" the young woman behind the counter asked.

"Yes they are…" he looked at her name tag, "Desiree, thank you for helping me pick them out. I need a favor from you though."

Desiree looked at him, "What would that be?"

"I need to dispose of these clothes, mind if I put them in your trash bag?"

"Well…" she began, "we're really not supposed to do things like that."

"I'd appreciate it," said Scott piling on the charm offensive, "and I'd make it worth your while."

She wavered before finally nodding her head. Tolan handed her the bag and few minutes later she came back from the dumpster. He was waiting there for her holding four hundred cubit notes.

"Thank you so much Mr. Tolan!" she exclaimed as she took the money from him.

"My pleasure Desiree, thank you for providing such great service."

"My pleasure," replied the flustered young woman. "Y'know this is a lot of money. How about I use some of it to buy you a drink? I finish in an hour."

Tolan smirked. "Perhaps another time, I'm afraid I have some pressing business to take care of."

Tolan walked out and immediately realized that the six people he had told to wait for him had not listened to him very well. He walked to the edge of the boardwalk and scanned the area as far as he could, but still nothing.

'Those idiots!' he screamed to himself, the warnings they had been given from both him and Lacey were for a reason. The Basileus ran operations at night from this beach; Amarna had become the new headquarters for the crime syndicate since his Aunt Lydia had officially taken control following the death of his grandfather, Carl Tolan. Lydia Zeresi had said that Amarna was a 'lucky city' and that it was better to be based out of it than the city of Iopolis.

A part of his mind told him that he should just leave them to learn his lesson the hard way, but the Colonial officer in him said otherwise. His instincts told him that he needed to do something, and here in Amarna that meant one thing. He needed to go visit Aunt Lydia to see what could be done about this situation.

_**Olwin Beach Transport Hub:**_

"This is your personal shuttle?" Helen Octavia asked as the group followed their two new friends to a shuttle that looked like it could seat ten easily.

"Yeah, our family has quite a bit of cubits for us to play with and this is one of the presents my aunt got for me," David Mattson said as he put his arm around Alice Rosana and pulled her close to him.

"How'd the two of your meet?" Megan Jordan asked after she was done giving Garrison Brown a kiss.

This time it was Rosana who spoke, "We were both attending college at Carrington University over in Hades, the capital of Canceron, and the rest is history. My family runs a shipping business here on the colony and David's family has a multitude of business interests and they're all successful."

"That's impressive, how do you stay on the good side of the Basileus?" Megan asked.

There was a long pause before Mattson spoke, "Let's just say we have a way of making it work. The Basileus are the least of the problems we have with running a business. I fear the bureaucratic red tape of the customs agency more than I do the Basileus."

"We met two people who said they were Tolans," Helen said, wanting to find a way back into the conversation.

"Is that right, what were their names?" Rosana asked as her left eyebrow shot up in interest.

"Scott and Lacey Tolan," Megan said. She saw the two of them exchange a look, but it was hard to put a finger on what their reaction was. Perhaps there was something to this that was not so obvious to the naked eye. Before she could follow up on her hunch Jessi Payton jumped into the conversation.

"Would the two of you know them?" Jessi asked, drawing a look from Raymond Sharp.

"Like most people on Canceron we've heard the names, but no…I can't say we know them personally," Mattson quickly said.

"Enough about those two idiots, let's get up into space and do some spacewalking," Jarell Cashmere said in an attempt to move the conversation away from the man he almost came to blows with on the boardwalk not too long ago.

"Couldn't agree with you more," Rosana said as her and Mattson reached the shuttle and opened the hatch so everyone could get into the vehicle.

_**Cygnus Medical Center**_

The sports car, stopped suddenly in front of the entrance to the emergency room of the Cygnus Medical Center. Both Livingston and her helped Melissa Saunders out of the car, and started carrying her up the stairs to the entrance doors.

"Miss, you can't park that here!" a security guard called out from nearby.

"In that case get a valet to park that for us!" Lacey called out to the guard who was nervously waiting as to what to do. He quickly nodded and got on his wireless to get someone to move the car out of the way.

The two walked in through the automatic doors dragging the semi-conscious Melissa with them and made their way up to the front desk.

"My cousin, Scott Tolan, called here about twenty minutes ago," Lacey said to the woman, who's demeanor changed when we saw how bad off Melissa looked.

A few clicks on her computer and then she said, "Dr. Reiss will be here to take your friend to the back."

A minute later one of the sets of doors opened and an attendant with a gurney came out followed by a doctor who looked to be in his late-twenties or early-thirties, "Is this the girl Admiral Tolan called about?"

"Yes sir, she started throwing up at the beach," Lacey said before wondering if this man was former military, he certainly had the posture of a soldier.

"Right, we'll take her back and have a look at her. Dr. Wilhelm Reiss, I'm the physician on duty here today," Reiss said as he held out his hand.

"Lacey Tolan, and this here is…" she tried to remember his name but it escaped her at the moment.

"James Livingston, I'm a friend of Lacey and Melissa's," Livingston shook Reiss' hand `

"Help her onto the gurney and we'll take her back," Reiss said to the attendant, who motioned for another member of the staff to help Melissa onto the gurney. With that done they began wheeling her back.

"Listen; there is a cafeteria on the floor fourth floor. The two of you go up there and get something to drink and eat. As soon as I know something I'll have you paged back down here," With that said, Reiss turned and left the two standing there.

"We're friends now?" Lacey said to Livingston with a look that screamed 'Oh really!'

"He seems to know who your cousin was, might not hurt to claim a connection to your family."

"Be glad I'm not so easily offended," Lacey thought for a moment before finally saying, "alright until Melissa is out of the hospital we're friends."

Livingston smiled at her, "Sounds good to me babe."

"Call me Lace and leave it at that, we're not dating." Lacey gave Livingston a look that left no room for argument on that one. Perhaps her year at the Fleet Academy was rubbing off on her after all.

The cafeteria of the Cygnus Medical Center had undergone a major renovation two years before, replacing the cold sterile confines with a more warm appearance. Lacey Tolan and J.D. Livingston sat in one of the corner booths; he sat facing the wall while she sat facing the entrance to the cafeteria.

There was a wall-mounted television broadcasting the Marney News Network based out of Caprica, an interesting choice seeing as how they were on Canceron. Lacey thought about it and decided that it was not her place to decide what should or should not be broadcast in the hospital cafeteria. She did note that the anchorwoman was mentioning a story involving Arthur Saunders, a wealthy banker on Caprica, and a financial scandal involving the bank he ran. A snapshot of the Saunders family was displayed on the screen and Lacey immediately recognized the young woman in the photograph.

"J.D., why is the daughter of a Caprican banker visiting this particular beach?" she asked.

"Canceron is known for the beaches, and we thought it'd be adventurous to hook up on this colony," Livingston paused before adding, "Helen was the one with the idea, she knew I had an interest in Melissa and a surprise might help to speed things along with us."

"Listen, I tried to tell them it's a bad idea to be on this beach at night time. During the day it's fine, but at night that's when you have to stay on guard."

Livingston laughed, "Lace you might be a part of the crime family but could it be that perhaps all this talk about the Basileus is just that…talk?"

Lacey saw another news story now, this one dealt with the disappearance of Azura Balfour. The socialite was on break from college when she disappeared following a trip to Scythia Beach. She just shook her head both in frustration at the fact that she was sure her family was behind it somehow and the stupidity shown by the tourists who did not seem to fully comprehend just how dangerous the Basileus really were.

"At night is when the kidnappers, human traffickers, and other predators from the Basileus come out to ply their trade. Undertaking abduction at say, Scythia Beach, is more difficult but it can be done. Here in Amarna it's different because this is the city that the Basileus is headquartered in. This is where the Tolans like to come out and play when the stars are out," she kept her eyes focused on Livingston as if she were daring him to dismiss what she was telling them.

"What does that mean about my friends?" he finally asked her.

"If they're with Scott then they have nothing to worry about, if they're not then they had best make sure to be on their guard if they're going to do something stupid like stay out on the beach at night."

"Why is Scott so important a person to the family? He doesn't strike me as being a small part of the organization," Livingston said as he picked at his food with his fork.

"There is a tradition among the Canceron people concerning the eldest children. In this case my Uncle Henry, Scott's father, was the eldest son of my grandfather. He wanted Henry to take over the Basileus, and when he died two years after the Cylon War it fell to my cousin Andrew to take over. Andrew died when he was fourteen, and that meant that the responsibility of taking my grandfather's place as head of the Basileus fell to Scott. To make a long story short, Scott wanted nothing to do with the family business and was more than willing to renounce his claim to the leadership. That is why Lydia Zeresi is in charge, she's the eldest surviving child of Carl Tolan and when Scott renounced his claim she was more than willing to take over," Lacey said while hoping she was making sense.

"Tell me then, why does that give Scott some kind of protection?" Livingston asked with genuine intrigue.

"Two reasons, first is that he is a powerful man in his own right. He is a Rear Admiral, a flag officer in the Colonial Fleet, and that gets him a large degree of respect among the Basileus. The other is that Aunt Lydia owes him her position and appreciates the fact that he has never once tried to assert what is probably his rightful claim to the leadership of the Basileus. Those in the organization know, you mess with Scott Tolan and you will not be long for this life."

"That means that Jerelle was about to do something really stupid at the beach earlier?"

Lacey smiled at him, "You have such a gift for understating."

"I'm going to try to change the subject now, where do you go to school at?"

Lacey decided to let him take their conversation down a different track, "I'm a cadet at the Fleet Academy on Picon. It was one of my two choices, but President Adar made my decision easy."

"Really? How so and what was your other choice?" Livingston tried to imagine the petite blonde sitting across from him as a cadet at a military academy but was having a hard time. 'She must be tougher than she looks,' he thought to himself.

"My other choice was Abry Military Academy where my Uncle Artimus attended. It seems that President Adar secured me an appointment to the Fleet Academy, which was surprising to me since I had never met the man before. I asked Scott about it and he told me that my grades in school must have done the job of convincing him to give me one of the slots at the Academy."

"So because of Adar you're now on Picon instead of Caprica, you might want to have told him 'Thanks but no thanks,'" Livingston laughed more at the thought of being stuck on Picon than anything else.

"Picon has its good points," she protested. "But anyway what about you?"

"My dad is Brent Livingston, the founder of Alcaeus Industries back on Caprica. My mom's name is Elizabeth and she is a corporate lawyer with the Jackson & Prince law firm. I'm an only child; I suppose you're thinking that means I was spoiled rotten by my rich parents."

"Perhaps I was," Lacey said.

"You'd be absolutely right; I was spoiled rotten by them. If they stopped I'd be lost!" Livingston said with a straight face before finally giving in and laughing.

Lacey could not help it and joined in, "That was horrible, but funny at the same time."

Livingston pointed a finger at her, "I knew there was something beneath that cool exterior of yours. I just had to use my charm to get it out of you."

"You got a laugh out of me sweetie and there's no guarantee you'll be able to pull that one off again," Lacey said as she took a sip of water from her glass.

"In that case, let's enjoy our food. Why'd you get the salad again?" Livingston figured he might be able to get a rise out of her.

"Unlike most places, the Fleet Academy has a grueling Physical Training regime. Even though I'm on break right now, I want to make sure I'm in shape for what lies ahead for me Sophomore year. "

He had to admit, he was enjoying the company of Lacey Tolan. It helped that it got his mind off of what was going on with Melissa Saunders and kept him from worrying about her or letting that worry show. He could be the same carefree guy he had always been.

The two had dinner in what would be described as an amicable silence, the events of today had played a part in making their appetites the way they were. It was not long after they had started up a conversation about her cousin and two honorary uncles, Artimus Bowman and Tyrone Carter that they heard their names being paged over the hospital intercom to report to the front desk of the emergency room.

_**Asterion Station, in orbit of Canceron:**_

"Score one goal for the C-Bucs!"Jarell Cashmere exclaimed as he maneuvered around Garrison Brown to slam the ball into the goal.

"Lucky shot!" Raymond Sharp shouted through the communications frequency of his helmet.

"You're going down next time," Jessi Payton said as she maneuvered her space suit to where she was side-by-side with Sharp. She made it a point to slap him on the butt, which would have made him travel if not for the thrusters on the space-walking suit.

"Well baby, I promised you the chance to whoop some Picon Panther ass now didn't I?" Helen Octavia said as she put her helmet up to Cashmere's in an attempt to kiss her suit to his.

"By the time this is done baby, I'm going to do some private celebrating with you!" Cashmere pulled Helen to him and the two would have done their own personal victory dance if Megan Jordan had not thrown a pyramid ball that slammed into the side of Cashmere's helmet before floating away into infinity.

"You two ready to stop making out and play Round Two?"

"Sorry guys, I just received word from the station, our time in space is up. Let's head back to the planet and get some paintball in," David Mattson said from the small area of the station the group of friends had ventured into space from once they were in their suits. For the past three hours they had played a regulation space pyramid game, simulating yet another intense game between the Caprica Buccaneers and their hated rivals the Picon Panthers.

"Well in that case let me down there so I can nail Megan," Brown said before quickly adding, "with a paintball of course."

_**Aurelius, Restaurant in Old Town Amarna:**_

With the bombing of the Iasos Restaurant in the New Town section of Amarna, Lydia Zeresi decided to move her base of operations to the Old Town section. The result of this move was the restaurant named Aurelius. The building that housed the new operation was an old two-story warehouse that had been converted into the restaurant that was there today. Being that it was the Basileus running things, there were hidden areas for Lydia Zeresi's personal guard to come out and deal with any disturbances that would cause grief to the queen of the crime family.

Scott Tolan stood there outside as employees made their way inside to prepare for the dinner crowd that was sure to come in. When the last of the employees seemed to have entered, Tolan followed in through the door. The walls still had the red brick interior, and the wooden floors looked as though they were the ones when the structure was originally built. He had to admit that whoever had redesigned this warehouse into a restaurant knew what had to be done to make it work.

"Can I help you?" a large muscular man with a perpetual scowl asked as he sized up the unfamiliar face in the restaurant.

"I'm here to see Lydia Zeresi," Tolan stated.

The man cocked his head to one side, "I'm sure you do, but Ms. Zeresi is in no mood to be disturbed by anyone. Who do you think you are to come in here and request an audience?"

"I'm her nephew, Scott Tolan that should be enough to get me an audience with my Aunt Lydia."

"In that case, you wouldn't be opposed to my asking you for some identification. I'd hate to think you were some Ministry of Intelligence plant here to cause trouble."

Tolan was not in a mood to argue so he reached behind him and put his hand in his wallet. The movement caused the man to reach inside his tuxedo jacket, "Easy there big fella, I'm just getting my wallet out to show you my id."

"Nice and slow," the man said as he kept his hand inside his jacket on what Tolan was sure was a gun.

"Check it out, Rear Admiral Scott Tolan of the Colonial Fleet. Does that satisfy you, champ?"

The man's demeanor seemed to change when he realize that the man in front of him was in fact a Tolan, "Yes sir, if you'd be kind enough to wait there I'll let Ms. Zeresi know that you're here."

Tolan took a seat that faced one of the windows, outside the people of Canceron were going about their business without a care at all. At least that was what he thought when he let himself forget that his family had a grip on the people and their lives in some way.

He was going to have to once again have a chat about family business with Lydia Zeresi, this time it was to see just how safe Olwin Beach would be tonight and perhaps for the rest of the week. He was not sure why he was taking an interest in the group of people he had encountered but something told him that if he had a chance to save at least one person from the clutches of his family's business interests it would be worth it.

A young woman came down the stairs leading to the upper floor, a mix of private dining suites and Basileus offices. Tolan had met this woman before, her name was Armida Tasso, and she was the secretary for Ms. Zeresi.

"Admiral Tolan it is always a pleasure to see you," Tasso said as her and Tolan exchanged kisses on the cheek.

"You as well Armida, how is my aunt?" Tolan asked as the two walked towards the stairway.

"She's been better; you know these past few years have been rough on her."

Tolan nodded his head, "I know she hasn't had a good run of luck, I hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

Tasso shook her head, "She said she is always glad to see you, and she asked where Lacey was."

Tolan chuckled, "My Aunt Lydia, always finding a way to keep tabs on me."

"I can't say I blame her, you're someone I'd like to have my eyes on all the time."

Tolan and Tasso had enjoyed a playful flirtatious repartee with each other.

"A pity I'm married then," Tolan said which got Tasso to look back at him with an amused glance.

"I suppose Emily did see you first, I'll be a gracious loser this one time," she said as she turned her back around as they arrived at the door to Lydia Zeresi's private office and suite.

"She's waiting for you Scott, I'll see you when you're done," Tasso said as she walked away.

Tolan stood there for a moment to get his thoughts in order before opening the door and stepping inside.

Tasso walked away once again feeling like her mission was going perfectly. She had managed to infiltrate the Basileus and work her way into the confidences of not only Lydia Zeresi but Scott Tolan as well. For the upcoming plan it was important to use the Colonial Fleet officer to see just what information about the Fleet's activities he might let slip.

Tasso was actually a Number Six Cylon model; however she had undergone cosmetic surgery to ensure she looked only vaguely similar to her sister Cylons. This had to do with the mission she had been given, to use the smuggling operations of the Basileus to get more Cylon models into the Twelve Colonies to infiltrate the society to help pave the way for the nuclear holocaust that was to come.

In some ways it was a pity, there was a part of her that liked Scott Tolan and thought it was a shame that he had to die along with the rest of humanity but it was something that had to be done in order to complete God's will.

_**Cygnus Medical Center**_

Lacey Tolan and J.D. Livingston were standing outside the doors to the Isolation Ward waiting for the doctor who had paged them to show up. The double doors opened and out walked Dr. Reiss.

"Thank you for showing up so quickly, we discovered what was wrong with your friend," Reiss said as he held up a clipboard with the lab findings.

"What happened to her?" Lacey asked before Livingston could do the same.

"I'm afraid she's come down with the Degler Influenza," Reiss said as he studied the notes once again.

"How did she come across that?" Livingston asked as he tried to think of where she could have been at to catch such a disease.

"It's native to Scorpia, mostly in the Degler area of the Demter Jungle. Has she been to Scorpia recently?" Reiss asked.

"Last month she went on a hike through the Demeter Jungle. How could she have gotten it from there?" Livingston asked.

"She could have either been bitten by an insect carrying the virus or she could have consumed food or drink that had been contaminated. Unlike most viruses its gestational period is quite long hence why only now her symptoms have appeared. As a precaution I am recommending that you be innoculated since you have come into close contact with her," Reiss decided to put their fears at ease, "She's going to be fine, we're pumping her full of meds to help take the edge off of her pain and she's getting plenty of intravenous fluids. We've also contacted her parents and they should be here in the next hour or so."

"That's a relief, I know they have to be worried sick about her," Lacey said.

"I told them about you getting her here so quickly, if you hadn't have acted the way you did it might have been worse for her. She's lucky to have friends like the two of you. When we find that she's no longer contagious she'll be moved to Room 780, I told Mr. and Mrs. Saunders that you'd both be waiting for them there. If you'll excuse me, I have to go back to the ER. Dr. Gordon Wales, will be the one taking care of Miss Saunders from this point forward," Reiss said as he handed the clipboard to a nearby nurse with instructions to hand it over to Dr. Wales before excusing himself to go back to the ER.

"Well it's good to know that she's going to be alright," Livingston said as he turned to walk towards the nearby elevator.

"You can wait for her up there, really there's no need for me to be up there as well," Lacey said as she tried to excuse herself.

"No way Lace, you got her here and probably saved her life so you should be up there with me when Melissa's parents arrive."

"They don't have to thank me, I was doing what any person would have done," Lacey said as she walked up to where Livingston was standing before people would think the two were having some sort of spat.

"Considering the way my friends were acting towards you and your cousin, you had every reason to tell us to get frakked but instead you used your considerable influence to help someone when they were in need. I could try to take all the credit, but I want her parents to know that you deserve most of it. I may take a small part for the trouble I've dealt with."

Lacey gave him a quizzical look, "Just what trouble have you had to deal with?"

"I've been trapped with the niece of the most powerful crime lord on Canceron, for all I know you'd have probably shot me several times in your mind," Livingston said knowing he was going to irritate Lacey more.

"You deserve this one," Lacey said as she punched him in the arm.

"Now I need to go the ER and get one of these cute nurses to look after me," Livingston said as he dramatically rubbed his bicep where he had been punched.

"Just for that comment I'll make sure you get the oldest, meanest, most ill-tempered nurse they have here and don't think I won't do it," Lacey arched an eyebrow at him as though she was daring him to continue.

"You win Lace, however you are still going up there with me."

Lacey sighed, "Fine, I'll go up there and get my 'Thank you' from the Saunders family. You know I'm doing this to shut you up."

"At least you're honest about it, besides you've done your part to help me too."

"Right, what purpose could I have served for you?"

"You've helped me to keep my mind from dwelling on Melissa for too long," Livingston said as he hit the button to summon the elevator.

_**SV Valeriu**_

Malka had sent for additional crew members and now seven new people had joined her from the _Eurylade_.

Andrew Sterett, James Jarvis, Stephen Cassin, and Rae Arison lent additional firepower to the team. David Crawford III was a native of Canceron and an intelligence asset Malka used whenever she was on the colony, not to mention that on the Eurylade he served as the ship's chef due to his experience working in the culinary field while he attended college at Truxtun University in Iopolis. Duke Lorentson was her explosives expert who was able to effectively plant and diffuse almost any type of bomb known to the MoI and had created a few new ones of his own. The last person on the team was Dr. Monica Astrid, the Chief Medical Officer of the _Eurylade_. Taking her place on the ship was the only nurse aboard, Christy Riley.

Malka paced the bridge of the freighter; the auto pilot had been engaged and was leading them back towards Canceron. Once they were in orbit, the team would board two small transport shuttles and land on the ship in the Marius Sea that was waiting to transport the weapons to the docks at Olwin Beach. Her teams would kill the crew and deliver the weapons themselves, a clever trap to eliminate Drake and Caelie Tolan and bring an end to two more members of the Tolan crime family. She allowed herself a slight smile at the thought of the damage she might inflict on the Basileus.

_**Olwin Beach, Warehouse Docks**_

Once they were back on the colony's surface, the group followed Mattson and Rosana to the warehouse that contained the paintball set that was promised to provide thrills the likes of which they had never expected before.

There had been a ticket house added to the front of the building and a lone man was sitting there looking as though he was bored.

"We're closed," he said as they walked up to the building.

"We have some friends here who came all the way from Caprica for a little fun, sure you can't just let us in before the place opens?" Mattson asked.

"The boss would have my head if I did that, at least if he was here to see it that is," the man said in an attempt to further discourage them.

"Perhaps this can help you change your mind," Rosana said as she slid several cubit notes through the slot in the window.

The man looked to be seriously mulling the generous offer when he finally nodded his head, "Alright, get in there and have some fun but remember this never happened."

"Fair enough," Mattson said as they were buzzed in through the door.

"Well the men's locker room is to the left and women's locker room is to the right. The uniforms you'll be wearing should already be in there waiting for you. Split up and get ready and we'll meet you back here in the lobby," Mattson said.

"Shouldn't the two of you come with us and get ready?" Cashmere asked.

"We will, but first we need to get everything set up for our big game," Rosana said.

"Fine, we'll be back soon," Megan said as she began to walk towards the women's locker room.

The three women entered their locker room and looked around for the promised uniforms but found that none were there.

"That's a bit odd," Jessi said as she opened lockers only to find that they were empty.

"Yeah, that is strange," Helen commented as she was doing the same.

"Let me go out and ask where they are," Megan said as she walked towards the door. She pulled on it and found that it was locked and not budging at all, "Hey Alice, the lock must have engaged and we can't get out!"

"What the frak?" Helen asked when she heard what Megan had said.

"You can't be serious?" Jessi added.

"I'm not joking, this door is not moving!" Megan exclaimed, her fear rising as she jerked harder to make the door open but found it to be an exercise in futility.

"Welcome humble guests, please make yourselves comfortable. You're going to be here a while," a woman's voice said over the intercom.

"That's Alice," Megan realized and she walked over to the intercom and pressed the 'Talk' button, " Hey Alice, we're trapped in here and can't get out!"

There was a laugh, a decidedly unfriendly laugh, "That's the point of that room. When you entered a lock was engaged, and you became our prisoners. You're not getting out of there until we say you can."

"Alice if this is your and Dave's idea of a joke it's not very funny," Helen said.

Another round of laughter, "Oh you can stop calling us by those names. My real name is Caelie Tolan, and the man you met is my husband Drake. Your boyfriends are finding this little bit information out even as we speak. Like I said before make yourselves comfortable, the six of you are going to make my husband and I a nice amount of money."

"That bitch," Jessi screamed as she began banging on the door before sliding down to the floor in tears. "Let us out of here! Please!"

There was a commotion from a corner and a woman stepped out and walked towards them. She looked to be young like they were, only she looked like she had not had a decent sleep any time in the recent past and her eyes betrayed the fear she was feeling. There was no telling what the Tolans had put her through.

"Who are you?" Megan asked.

"My name is Azura Balfour, and you've just entered hell," Azura Balfour had been here since her recent abduction, and she stared at the three scared young women who had been sent here to join her for whatever plans the Tolans had in store for them.


	3. Chapter 3: Family Business

Chapter Three: Family Business

**Faststar Eurylade**

"Sir, we've just received an urgent message from Headquarters," Chad Teuton said as he walked up to the chair that Carlos Gravina occupied.

"Thank you Mr. Teuton," Gravina uttered as he took the message and began to read it.

_**Attention Eurylade: **_

_**Our latest intel reports have confirmed that another target of interest has shown up on Canceron. Alert Major Malka that Odysseus is on the colony and is still considered a target of opportunity.**_

Gravina looked up from the decoded message, his eyes wide from the revelation of what this meant, Odysseus was on Canceron at the same time they were undertaking the mission to eliminate Drake and Caelie Tolan. Odysseus was considered one of the targets that had been given a top priority, right up there with Lydia Zeresi herself! Odysseus was none other than Rear Admiral Scott Tolan, Malka had tried to execute him on Picon but somehow the mission fell through and thus became a rarity in that she had failed that particular assignment. The whole event was a sore spot for her and was rarely if ever brought up in conversation.

"Send a Priority One message to Major Malka informing her of this development, this could be a coup for us," Gravina said as he thought of the possibility of eliminating the man who was by all rights the legitimate heir to the leadership of the Basileus. Gravina, like Malka, wanted this crime syndicate destroyed once and for all, it was why he so willingly jumped at the MoI's recruitment offer when he was a Raptor pilot on the _Orion_-class battlestar _Stryker_.

"Helm; plot a sublight course for Canceron; I want us on-station in case Malka does require our assistance," Gravina ordered as he began to think back to the reason why he wanted the Basileus eliminated. Actually, he could think of three good reasons why he wanted the crime syndicate destroyed: Federico Gravina, Isabella Gravina, and Sonia Gravina. His father and two of his three sisters had died when the restaurant they were eating at in the city of Noa was destroyed by a bomb during the mini-war fought by the factions of the Basileus to decide who would control the syndicate in the wake of Carl Tolan's death. They were simply visiting Canceron for a tour of where his father had fought during the latter days of the Cylon War and were not looking to be blown away in a crime family's civil war.

"Laying in a course for Canceron," Lloyd Allen, one of two helm officers on the Eurylade, said as he pointed the faststar in the direction of the colony.

**Aurelius, Old Town Amarna:**

Scott Tolan walked into the spacious office and saw her looking out the window at the city outside. She did not turn to acknowledge him just yet; it seemed she was some place other than here.

"Hello Scott, it's good to see you," Lydia Zeresi said as she turned to face her nephew.

"You as well Aunt Lydia," Tolan said as he walked over to where she was standing.

"I know this isn't a social call you're making, but I would like to know how the friends and family are," Lydia said as she sat down and made herself comfortable.

"Em and the kids are doing well; they're staying on Caprica for the time being. It's rumored the Vic and BSG-66 will be amalgamated into the Sixth Fleet and assigned to the defense of either Canceron or Libran," Tolan said as he took one of the seats facing the desk.

"That would be nice, having you here on Canceron instead of Caprica," Zeresi said with a wishful smile as though the thought of having her nephew and his family so close by was incredibly appealing to her.

"Like I said, it's only a rumor. There's no telling where the higher-ups may decide to assign us," Tolan said as he did not want to get her hopes up. Besides, Canceron could be a dangerous place to live, even for a Tolan.

"What about that friend of yours, Bowman isn't it? I hope he's doing well now that he had his own command," Zeresi asked.

"He's setting in nicely, give him time and he'll have his own fingerprints on every part of the Hermes and his crew. He's going to be alright though, I don't worry about him."

"Send him my regards the next time you talk to him, I know it did your uncle good to speak to him at his grandfather's memorial service," Zeresi said as her eyes began to show some of the sadness that she had carried from the loss of her husband over a year and a half ago.

"I will Aunt Lydia, I promise. I wanted to talk to you about Drake and Caelie, I know they have their operation out in Olwin Beach, but I want to know what business they have going on."

"Scott, you know they don't like us meddling in their affairs too much. Besides, what they do for me is quite lucrative. They go a long way towards keeping the Basileus financially viable."

"Of course they do, but I really want to know. I ran into a group who seemed pretty damn determined to get themselves into some kind of trouble, I want to make sure that Drake and Caelie don't do something stupid to bring the Capricans down here to make our lives more uncomfortable than it already is."

Lydia Zeresi seemed to think over for several minutes before she finally seemed to relent. Scott may have relinquished the family the business but he was still just as smart and wise in the ways of organized crime as the great Carl Tolan himself and she smiled momentarily before adding, "They're running a black market human trafficking ring through the docks at Olwin Beach."

"I thought you told me you were going to put an end to that in exchange for my help with the MoI," Tolan said feeling the anger rise up in him but keeping it from showing.

"I promise I will, it's just taking more time to scale the operations back. The MoI hit us hard and we have lost money in areas where we never had that problem in the past," Zeresi said and would have continued but the door opened and in walked Armand Lee.

"Mrs. Zeresi," Lee said as he bowed slightly out of respect to the woman who employed him.

"Mr. Lee, I trust you have a good reason for coming in here like this," Zeresi said as she motioned with her head in the direction of her nephew.

Lee looked at who it was and he allowed a slight smile, "Mr. Tolan, it is always a pleasure to find you back home."

Tolan walked over and gave Lee a handshake, "Armand, I see you are still around doing what you do best."

"Your aunt trusts me to carry out her orders to the best of my abilities; I'm as valuable to her as my father was to your grandfather."

"I see, well it's been a pleasure to see you as always but I'd like to have a word with my aunt without you here," Tolan said as he wondered just what was going on behind the stoic eyes of Armand Lee.

"Of course Mr. Tolan, I'll be waiting outside in the lobby when you're done," Lee said with a curt nod as he left the room.

"Is there more to this visit besides asking about family business?" Zeresi asked.

"Yes there is, I know your hands are in every aspect of the criminal world here but do you really need to keep up the human trafficking business?"

"There's a need for it, and with my power and influence I can make sure it's carried out in a humane fashion."

Tolan shook his head, "We're talking about the kidnapping and selling of humans into slavery, forgive me for not understanding how 'humane' it could possibly be."

"Scott, you know I can't just undo something like this. It'll be seen as a sign of weakness by those who want my position; my life and the lives of all our family could be over as I know it."

"Much like the MoI has done their part to change your life as you know it," Tolan saw the look of sadness in his aunt's eyes and he came up with an idea, "Perhaps I could use some of my contacts to see if I can get the MoI to fall back and give you some room to breathe. Yes I exposed their mini-war against you to the papers but perhaps I can bring some behind-the-scenes pressure to get them to play nice. If you promise to end the human trafficking I can use my contacts to make it happen."

"There are times when you can be so idealistic; this is the way the worlds work. I can't change it anymore than you can change your heritage even if you do hide behind a Battlestar and an Admiral's uniform."

Tolan was quiet for a moment before he finally spoke, "I've spent my whole career walking the line between being a Colonial Fleet officer and a member of the Tolan family. It wasn't until five years ago that I was safe from being pulled in to the affairs of the Basileus. We both know how important family is, and we've both put our necks out on the line for one another. Keep this up and you're going to put me in a position to choose where to put all of my loyalty, and I can assure you it will go to the Colonial Fleet."

"That's not like you; you've always understood the benefits of being under the protection of not only the Basileus but also my personal protection. There's no reason for you to throw that away."

"You weren't the only member of the Tolan family who was targeted by the MoI, unless you didn't know that of course."

"They came after everyone; they'd have probably gone after your mother if she hadn't have died of that heart attack. It's a wonder they haven't targeted Lacey and yourself…they haven't have they?"

"Targeting Lacey makes no sense; she's never done anything involving the family business."

"What about you Scott, were you targeted? When I heard about your car crash on Picon two years ago that was something I was afraid of."

Tolan wanted to say something about it but he realized that ultimately it was not something that was relevant, "Listen, the important thing is that we end this human trafficking ring once and for all. Considering what we've done for each other over the past couple of years I don't think I'm being too unreasonable."

Lydia Zeresi was quiet for some time as she mulled over the offer that had been given to her. After what seemed like an eternity she finally said, "You have a deal."

"Thank you Aunt Lydia," Tolan said as he turned to walk out of the door.

Lydia Zeresi sat there and pondered what had just taken place. Her mind was telling her that she should not have made such a deal, and the cubits lost from the human trafficking side of the Basileus would put a dent in her bottom line. However, as much as she valued money she valued having Scott and Lacey in her life. She may never admit it in public, but she was proud of both them and the way they had turned out. Perhaps in some small way they were going to be able to give the Tolan name a bit of redemption through their actions. It was at least a hope she had.

She turned her attention to a letter that had been delivered from the office of Doctor Nicole Lassus, her private physician. She had recently had blood drawn as part of her annual physical and not long after that she had received the news that she was suffering from a severe form of anemia. The letter contained the copy of the report that she had requested from Doctor Lassus, and it would not be long until she began to undergo treatment for her condition. If it got worse then there would eventually be a new head of the Basileus.

She looked at the picture of her husband Vincent and her daughter Briana. It had been about three years ago that her Briana had been murdered by a man who was discovered to have been a serial killer. 'Bri' left behind a son named Davin and he had stayed with her here in Armarna since that day.

In this moment she was alone and none could see the storm of emotion that was so clearly visible on her face. She looked at the picture of her husband and daughter and quietly said, "I may be seeing the two of you soon."

What would her father think if he saw her now? Carl Tolan had been devastated when her older brother Henry, Scott's father, had died from an acute form of Leukemia. When Andrew, Scott's brother, had been gunned down because of a power grab by DeAndre Trevino it had driven her father further into a depression that he would not come out of. Trevino had been one of Carl Tolan's most trusted lieutenants, and had been placed in charge of the Basileus' operations out of the Anthedon province where Scythia Beach was located at. Tolan kept his mental sharpness in place long enough to exact a terrible retribution against those who had plotted against him and had taken the life of his grandson. It was after this that he had taken to drinking heavily, and that along with the two great personal losses ended his life sooner than most would have expected.

She had taken the reigns of power and held on to them tightly, she had to put aside the woman she once was and become Lydia Zeresi of the Basileus. A part of her felt like she believed her father had felt before the end, that she had gained the whole world but had lost her soul in the process.

**Cygnus Medical Center:**

"There I told you it wouldn't hurt," J.D. Livingston said after Lacey Tolan had received her Degler Influenza vaccine.

"I never said it would hurt, I got more shots when I was going through my physical and vaccinations to enter the Fleet Academy.

"Well I could have sworn you were going on about being afraid of needles," Livingston said as he tried to think of what she had said.

"No I said it's a good thing I'm not afraid of needles, do I even want to know where your mind is?"

"What about Admiral Tolan, won't he need a vaccination since he was exposed to Melissa?"

Lacey shook her head, "The Fleet inoculates its personnel against all known diseases, so Scott has already received his vaccination."

Before they could speak the door to the room came open and a group of patient transport attendants wheeled in the hospital bed that Melissa Saunders had been moved onto. The young woman had been changed into a hospital gown and had an IV drip running into her arm. She was unconscious, but it was obvious that she was breathing steadily.

A man followed in once the attendants had left, he was an older man with what seemed to be a reserved demeanor.

"Are you the couple who brought her in?" he asked.

"Yes sir, I'm J.D. Livingston and this is Lacey Tolan," Livingston said as the two exchanged handshakes with the doctor.

"I'm Dr. Gordon Wales; I'm the physician in charge of Miss Saunders during her stay here. From the reports Dr. Reiss gave me it's a fortunate thing that the two of you were there to bring her to us. Degler Influenza can be serious if it's not treated right away," Wales turned his attention to Livingston, "You and your girlfriend are welcome to stay here until her parents arrive. She's sedated for the time being, but when she wakes up the nurses will give her some medication to help with her symptoms. We do have rooms for families to stay in here on the hospital grounds, if you two want a room for sleeping just let somebody know."

Wales then turned and left the room, leaving the two of them with the unconscious young woman.

"Girlfriend? Thank you for correcting him on that!" Lacey exclaimed with disbelief.

"You're a girl and you're my friend so why should I have corrected him?" Livingston said as he feigned innocence.

"You honestly expect me to believe that?" Lacey said with a look that left no room as to what she thought about it.

"Don't worry Lace; it's just a temporary thing. Once Melissa's parents are here we'll be officially broken up as a couple...pax?" Livingston said as he extended his hand. In the old tongue of Caprica the word 'Pax' stood for 'peace'.

"Pax, but I'm doing this for Melissa," Lacey said as she shook his hand.

"Pull up a chair and we'll sit, no point in standing around here waiting. Besides, I think it would make you much nicer if you became more comfortable," Livingston said as he pulled a chair out of the corner for Lacey to sit in.

"You keep pulling stunts like that and you'll be lucky to see my 'nice' side again," Lacey said as she sat down in the chair and laid her against the wall to look up at the ceiling.

"How come you're not in the Basileus?" Livingston finally asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"What do you mean?" Lacey asked as she suddenly began to feel tired.

"I always figured that with a crime family like that you would be in there one way or another, yet you and your cousin seem to have little to no taint from it."

"My parents were killed when I was five, they were on the Commonwealth Expressway leaving Hades when this transport truck in front of them lost control and toppled over. My parents were in the wrong place and their car was crushed, the only reason I wasn't with them was because I had been left with my Aunt Lydia and Uncle Vincent in Amarna," Lacey said as she closed her eyes as though she was fighting back a memory that she did not want to have in her mind.

"That's terrible Lace, "Livingston said with genuine sympathy, "How did that affect your life?"

Lacey half smiled, "Aunt Lydia sent me to live with my Aunt Sylvia in Clio, it's a small town on the interior of the continent that she grew up in. Aunt Sylvia also happens to be Scott's mother. She raised me, and Scott became more of my big brother than my first-cousin. I think that's part of why he's so protective when it comes to me, he sees me more like his little sister."

"I see," Livingston said as he thought of the mess his friends would have been in if they had escalated things back on the beach with the Colonial Fleet officer.

"If you're wondering how I ended where I am," Lacey began as though she could read his mind, "Aunt Sylvia was asked to make sure I grew up not wanting to be a part of the Basileus. That wasn't too hard because Scott's older brother, Andrew, was gunned down when he was fourteen by a group of people attempting a power grab within the family."

"That's an impressive story; I mean you could have turned out so differently compared to how you are now. It's like one of those things where a simple decision or one moment could have ripple effects that are seen throughout the years. Do you miss your parents or are you glad things went the way they did?" Livingston asked and was not sure what to expect until he looked over at her and saw that Lacey had in fact fallen asleep in the chair and had probably not heard the first thing he had said.

"Ok, now that just hurts," Livingston said in mock hurt fashion.

He stood up and stretched before walking over to the bed to look at Melissa. She looked as beautiful as ever, albeit she seemed a bit paler than when he had last seen her. He reached out and stroked her cheek, before he knew what he was doing he stopped and looked back to see if Lacey had awaken and was wondering what he was doing.

'It shouldn't matter what she thinks,' Livingston thought to himself but the thought would not leave his head.

He finally turned and left to go see if there was a book or magazine that he could read to pass the time by. There was no telling when Arthur and Louise Saunders would arrive from Caprica.

**Olwin Docks, Drake and Caelie Tolan's Base of Operations:**

**Men's Holding Area:**

"Let us out of here, I swear I'll kill you if you don't!" Jarell Cashmere screamed as he threw himself into the door one more time in a futile effort to get it to budge.

"You know that's not going to work," Raymond Sharpe said as he tried to get his friend to stop the futile effort.

"Well at least he's doing something, not just walking around like some damn fool," Garrison Brown said in a not-so-veiled slam against Sharpe.

"I'm taking in the surroundings and trying to find a weak spot. For all we know there could be a way out of here that we just haven't noticed yet," Sharp said as he looked up at the ceiling.

"You do your thing and I'll do mine," Cashmere said as he began to pound on the door once again and screamed to be let out.

"Give it a rest, they're not going to let us out," Sharpe said as he took a seat on a bench.

"I've had enough of you," Cashmere said as he walked over and sucker-punched Sharpe off of bench.

The two men began going at one another in a fist fight that Brown wanted no part of.

"Enough you two," a voice said over the speaker.

"That you again Tolan?" Cashmere said arrogantly demanding an answer as he gave Sharpe a shove to the floor to turn his attention to their captor.

"Correct, now you need to play nice and for the love of the gods stop banging on that door. You're giving me a headache!"

"Then I may just have to keep doing that," Cashmere said as he walked over to the door and began to bang on it again.

"I tried to do it the easy way, now it's got to be done the hard way," Drake Tolan said with a sigh of regret as he turned the intercom off and began to flood the room with a gas designed to render a person unconscious within seconds.

**Women's Holding Area:**

"How'd they get you?" Megan Jordan asked Azura Balfour.

"I was in my hotel room on Scythia Beach when they broke into my room and took me away. The knocked me out with a drug and carried me to a freight elevator that went all the way to the basement. From there I was loaded into the trunk of a car and brought here," Balfour shivered as she thought of the events of that night and the ones that had taken place since she had arrived here.

"That's crazy, how were they able to get into your room?" Helen Octavia asked.

"I wondered about that, but one day when Drake Tolan came by to 'visit' me he told me that they had bribed several members of the hotel staff to supply a key to my room and simply look the other way."

"What's going to happen to us?" Jessi Payton asked to no one in particular. In the time since they learned of their abduction she had simply stayed curled up in a ball in one of the room's corners.

"We're going to be sold at an auction like cattle to whoever wants to buy us, I was here when they sold a group that been captured before me. The women were going to serve as sex slaves or house servants while the men were looking at a life of physical labor at some illegal mine or business. I had put my ear to the door during the auction and heard the buyers talking among themselves."

"Why weren't you sold?" Megan asked.

"I'm the daughter of a rich family; they could get more from ransoming me. I was told by Caelie that the payment has been received and I'm going on the auction block along with the rest of you."

"Not if I can help it!" Helen said as she began to beat on the door.

The intercom crackled to life, "Seriously, not you too."

There was a hissing sound as the knockout gas began to fill the room.

**Cygnus Medical Center:**

The door to the room came open suddenly, causing Lacey to jump out of her chair and Livingston to come out of the chair he had dozed off in.

"Cadet Tolan, awake and ready!" Lacey said as she automatically came to attention as though she had just been roused from her bunk at the Fleet Academy.

"At ease soldier, you're not on Picon," Livingston said as he stretched and saw who had come through the door.

It was Arthur and Louise Saunders, looking as though they had grabbed a red-eye transport off of Caprica.

"J.D., thank the Gods you were here for her!" Louise Saunders blubbed as she wrapped her near hysterically waving arms around the young man.

"Yes, thank you so much. If you hadn't been there to get Melissa here…" Arthur Saunders said maintaining his cool although his eyes betrayed his concern as he shook Livingston's hand.

"Is it true that there were those horrible gangsters involved in this?" Louise asked.

"The Basileus of all people, when we heard she was sick we knew they had to have been involved. I was afraid those thugs had poisoned her somehow," Arthur said as he looked down at his daughter.

Livingston looked past the Melissa's parents and at Lacey who was standing in the corner with a look on her face that he found unable to read.

"I had help though," Livingston gestured to Lacey, "This is the woman who actually got Melissa and me here so quickly."

Lacey gave them a small wave, "Lacey Tolan, patient transport and murderous thug."

"About that…" Arthur said but it was too late as Lacey had turned and left the room.

"Should someone go after her?" Louise asked as she stroked her unconscious daughter's head.

"Let's go find her, I think she took a right down the hall," Livingston said and was followed by Arthur.

The two men took off down the hallway, stopping at the nurses' station to find out which way a petite blonde had just recently taken. The two took off and saw a corridor of elevators with a small group waiting to board them once the doors opened.

"Lacey!" Livingston called out. There was no reply so he called her name again and this time she turned to face him. Her face may not have been crimson with rage but her eyes left no doubt that Melissa Saunders' parents had touched a nerve in the worst possible way.

"I'm glad we caught up to you," Livingston said as he walked up to her. He was going to say more but he did not get the chance as Lacey connected with the side of his face with a resounding slap.

"Surprised you didn't punch me," he said as he rubbed the cheek she had slapped.

"The thought crossed my mind but my first thought was to hit you below the belt," Lacey said in a voice that was much calmer than most would have expected.

"Miss Tolan, can we go someplace private and sort out this misunderstanding?" Saunders said as he motioned to a nearby conference room.

"Oh now it's 'Miss Tolan'," Lacey said with a look that was not quite friendly.

"I forgot my manners back there in the Melissa's room, please allow me to talk to you in private so I can apologize," Saunders looked a bit more apologetic this time.

**SV Valeriu: **

"Major there is a contact off of our aft starboard side that's closing fast," Rae Arison said from her position at the helm of the _Valeriu_.

"Have you been able to establish its identity?" Major Galit Malka asked.

"It's the _Eurylade_," Arison said.

"Why is Gravina here?" Malka asked out loud though mainly it was a question for herself.

"There is an incoming call from the _Eurylade_," James Jarvis said from the communications station, "Lieutenant Gravina wishes to speak with you."

"Alright," Malka said as she picked up the receiver and let Gravina know she was listening.

"Major, we just received a message from Headquarters. Odysseus is on the planet," Gravina said.

"Really, what is he doing here?" Malka wondered, she knew there was a chance he would be here but she was not quite sure how she felt about it.

"Uncertain, but he is still labeled a target that needs to be removed if at all possible," Gravina said as he quoted the message to his commanding officer.

"Thank you Mr. Gravina, hold position on the far side of Crete and wait for orders to send an extraction shuttle," Malka said as she severed the connection.

"Odysseus is on Canceron, I suppose even he has to come home every so often. Are you going to be ok with eliminating him?" Keene Barron asked.

"Of course I am, it's a job that has to be done," Malka said though she was having trouble trying to sound convincing about what she was telling herself.

The doors to the bridge slid open and in walked Dr. Monica Astrid, the Chief Medical Officer of the _Eurylade_. She was a graduate of the School of Medicine at Rice–Eccles University in Tauron City, Tauron. She was recruited by the Ministry of Intelligence during her freshman year at the university and like the rest of the _Eurylade's_ crew was handpicked by Malka to be part of the crew. She was in her mid-forties and managed to look younger than her age would suggest.

"Dr. Astrid, what can I do for you?" Malka said upon seeing the doctor.

"Major, I'd like to have a word with you in private," Astrid said as she motioned towards the captain's office.

"Very well, Keene let me know if anything happens," Malka said as she followed her into the room.

When the hatch to the office had closed Malka took a seat at the desk while Astrid stood," What is it you need to talk about Doc?"

Astrid hesitated as though she was not sure what to do say but she finally seemed to find her words, "You didn't come by Sickbay like I had asked you to."

"Sorry but we made it to the _Valeriu_ faster than I had intended, when this is over I'll come by and we can get this ritual out of the way," Malka said as though this was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Major you know what can happen if you are not given the dose of Avelin," Astrid said.

"Yes, the MoI's little insurance policy in case I 'go rogue'," Malka said with air quotes for emphasis.

"You know as well as I do why they did that to you, but if you miss your dose of it then you'll get sick at first and then progressively worse until you die," Astrid said with her best physician's voice.

"Thanks to Bledsoe, Shea, and the rest of the Project Lysippe team for putting that into play," Malka said with a trace of bitterness at what had been done to her after the mission five years ago to rescue President Adar's sister and niece.

"They remade you into a different type of agent. You became a weapon for them wield as they saw fit, the last thing they needed was for you to be in a position where they could not control you," Astrid commented in a weak attempt to defend the work of Dr. Stuart Rathbourne, the head of Project Lysippe. Avelin was a drug designed to be administered into Malka's blood stream in order to keep a 'bio-safety mechanism' from engaging. If the drug was not administered every seventy-two hours then Malka would eventually die from a toxin that would be released into her bloodstream.

"Without my permission Doc, I've never felt the same since I woke up from that drug-induced fog those bastards put me in. Maybe when I've rid the Twelve Colonies of the Basileus I can put this behind me. We should be done with this operation in less than a day and then I'll take my dose of Avelin," Malka was resigned to the fact that every seventy-two hours she would need to have this done to keep her alive, in some ways she was like a drug addict who needed a fix to live.

"No need to worry, I brought it onboard from the_ Eurylade_, just come with me to the ship's sickbay and I'll administer it. Keene can keep things under control until the IV drip is done. Before you try to argue, MoI protocol states that as the Chief Medical Officer I have the authority to make you follow my directions."

Malka stood up and straightened her uniform, "Gods knows the MoI does love their protocol."

"You'll hear no argument from me Major, but a protocol is designed in the best interests of everyone. I'm going to up the dose on this one to give you more time on the mission in case something goes wrong," Astrid said as she began to take out the equipment needed.

"Hence the IV drips to give me the larger and more concentrated dose of the Avelin. I really hate feeling like I'm a slave to this," Malka said as she began to get comfortable for the IV, in some ways she was like a drug addict of some sort. It was a feeling of helplessness that came from needing this drug to keep her alive, all because the Ministry of Intelligence brought her back from the brink of death and remade her into this human weapon to unleash on those they felt were deserving. Not for the first time since she had awaken in that sterile while hospital room to find her life would never be the same, she began to wonder if it would have been more merciful for her to have simply died that day on the Sagitarron Liberation Army base when she had elected to stay behind to give the majority of the team she was on the chance to escape.

**SV Valeriu, Galley: **

"Hey Crawford, how are those burgers coming along?" Duke Lorentson asked.

"Tell you what Duke, you think you can do such a great job you come here and do it yourself. Considering you tend to blow things up though, we don't want a repeat of the König Triangle incident," David Crawford III said.

"Yeah, that had to have been a personal best for you Duke," Stephen Cassin said.

"We didn't have to fire a single shot and we took all those Basileus higher-ups," Lina Balaconis as she took a bite of a salad that Crawford had made for her.

"It was kind of disappointing, but the Major said it was a success and I'm not going to argue with her," Paula McElwain said.

The König Triangle was a group of three closely located cities on Baden, a large island in the southwestern hemisphere of the colony that was considered one of the continents. The cities that made up the Triangle were Lothringen, Elsass, and Von der Tann, and due to their close proximity to each other there was an extensive system of water, sewer, and gas pipes that in effect connected the utilities of the cities together. Galit Malka was able to get a hold of the list of residences and businesses that were controlled by the Basileus, and it was Duke Lorentson she relied on to come up with a set of bombs that would explode the gas lines and cause a series of explosions that would destroy only the places listed. Ultimately it was a mix of detonating these gas lines and sneaking into the buildings to plant explosive devises that would level the respective structures.

"Gods knows if he hadn't have had Oz there we'd have been screwed," Lorentson said as he began to remember the only member of the team that had been lost in the shadow war the Ministry of Intelligence had been fighting against the Basileus.

Osmond "Oz" Porter had been the _Eurylade's_ other Tactical Officer, the other being Carlos Gravina, and he was also trained in various weapons and hand-to-hand combat. He was a popular member of the crew, and was known for being able to lighten most tense situations when they had arrived. His last assignment was in the city of Noa on Canceron. There was a member of the Basileus named Wilson Champlin who served as a lawyer for Lydia Zeresi and also obtained information used to blackmail influential members of the government as well as business owners who did not want to pay protection money to the Basileus.

Porter, Lorentson, and Cassin were assigned to eliminate Champlin and hopefully cripple the operations of the Basileus just a little bit. The plan went off with a hitch and Champlin was killed by a car bomb that Lorentson had been able to install. The problem was that he had his personal security detail with him, and they were not in the car when it exploded. A firefight ensued and while Lorentson and Cassin were able to make to their getaway vehicle, Porter was struck by a bullet in the chest and died almost immediately. MoI Lieutenant John Furse had been assigned to the _Eurylade_ as his replacement, though the crew had yet to full warm up to him and saw him as not being worthy of Porter's place among the crew. Furse was patient however. He knew that in order to be accepted by the close knit crew he had to wait for his opportuinity to prove himself.

"To Oz," Cassin said as he raised a glass of water in salute of their fallen comrade. It would have been some form of booze but Malka had forbidden any alcohol being consumed due to the time-sensitive nature of their mission.

**SS Chantrell, Marius Sea, Canceron:**

Captain Albert Blackshaw held the binoculars to his eyes and scanned the horizon of the Marius Sea. The tempestuous body of water was surprisingly calm tonight, which made sense as to why the Basileus wanted the delivery done tonight instead of the next day or later on in the month.

"Any sign of them, sir?" Second Officer Lawrence Wallis asked.

"None yet, how's McPake doing?" Blackshaw asked in reference to his Chief Officer.

"She's still in her rack sir, Dr. Trusler says we have to let the virus run its course," Wallis said. Earlier in the day Alexandra McPake had come down with a sort of stomach bug that had left her incapacitated. Making matters worse was that First Officer Sidney Acton had also come down with the same virus.

"What if they don't show?" Wallis asked.

"They'll show, there's a lot of money riding on this deal and I intend to make sure we're well compensated for our troubles here today. I'll give them time to get here, but if they're later than they should be then I'll let the Basileus know that our price for this has doubled," Blackshaw licked his lips as the thought of doubling the amount of cubits he had been promised for delivering these weapons.

Wallis clutched his stomach suddenly, "Permission to go to the head."

Blackshaw waved his hand, "Go before we have to scrub your lunch off the deck!"

The officer left and Blackshaw was alone on the bridge apart from the young man in charge of the helm, not even a rough sea could tame his feeling of satisfaction at what he was going to accomplish today. The thought of the many cubits he would have dance around in his head and made him oblivious to the fact that his helmsman was now looking pale as though he was getting sick. An hour had passed; Blackshaw simply stared out the windows of the bridge at the waves that crested over the bow of his ship. He called out a course correction to the helmsman but heard no reply to it. He turned around and found the man lying on the ground unconscious.

Blackshaw rushed over and felt the young man's neck for a pulse, there was none to be found. He was going to move when he felt the muzzle of a gun pressed against his temple. He was not sure who it was but he never had the chance to ask, a wave of pain came over him and he slipped out of consciousness.

Lawrence Wallis surveyed his handiwork. The crew was incapacitated thanks to the virus that he had distributed throughout the ship. His plan was quite simple, he had secreted the virus into the ship's laundry and it had infected the crew to varying degrees. Now his work was done and he simply needed to wait for the delivery team to arrive with the weapons. He set the ship on an auto-adjusting course, the beautiful thing about automated systems was that one person could theoretically run an entire ship from a console in the bridge and he was doing just that.

He walked over to the communications room and pushed the wireless operator out of the chair that he had slumped over in. Picking up the receiver he checked his watch and realized that his people had of had time to finish their part of the job.

"Hello," the voice on the other end of the receiver said.

"Is the Major available?" Wallis asked.

"She's being tended do by our doctor, I'm in charge for now," the man said.

"Let her know that my work here is done, I'll keep the ship turning in a circle until she arrives with the cargo," Wallis said feeling a sense of pride in his work.

"Good job there Gus, we'll be there as soon as the Major is done with her visit with the Doc," Keene Barron said as he disconnected the connection.

"Not too bad if I do say so myself," Wallis, better known as Gustavus Conyngham, said with a sense of pride. He was an expert in disguise and infiltration, he had a career in the movie industry at one time as an actor and then as a costume/prop master. When his family on Sagitarron had been killed in a terrorist bombing he left his career behind and wound up working for Galit Malka and the MoI.

**Olwin Beach Warehouse: **

The door to the control room opened and both Drake and Caelie Tolan turned to see who was there.

"Drake, Caelie it's a pleasure to see you as always," Armand Lee said as he walked up and shook hands with Drake before greeting Caelie with a kiss on each cheek.

"You as well Armand, have you lined up our buyers for tonight's auction?" Drake asked.

"Tell me you have some deep-pocketed clients this time," Caelie asked with a hopeful smile.

"That I do, I worked the usual crowd at first but eventually some well-moneyed players came our way. Let's just say there's a gentleman who is willing to pay as many cubits as necessary to get his hands on these girls for both professional and personal reasons."

"Ok, now that statement calls for a name and other nice details!" Drake exclaimed.

"I'll tell you, though it's just between us of course," Lee said even though he was dying to let them in on the deal he had brokered.

"Of course," both Drake and Caelie said in unison.

"Does the name Phillip Nazro ring a bell?" Lee asked.

"The man who owns the Deucalion resort and casino on Scorpia, we stayed there for our honeymoon," Drake said.

"Well Mr. Nazro is willing to offer you two million cubits per girl as payment for the women, I suggest we take them off of the auction block," Lee said.

"I agree, I can gas them again and move them into a shipping container bound for Scorpia," Caelie said as she began to make notes on the transfer of the four women.

"Do that sweetie, and I will arrange the bidding on the three men. You do have buyers for them, right?" Drake asked.

Lee nodded, "Mr. Edmund Brewster of Briareus Mining, Mr. Bladen Dulany of Bushnell Chemicals, and Mr. Claude Bufford of Donathan Pharmaceuticals are willing to pay for our young gentlemen for roles ranging from manual labor to test subjects. I assure you we can fetch a great amount of cubits with this."

Caelie put her arms around Lee in a big hug, "You are the best Armand, and no wonder Aunt Lydia trusts you so much!"

"There's a potential problem to all of this," Lee finally admitted.

"What would that be?" Drake asked.

"Scott Tolan, it seems he's heard of this rather lucrative operation and has managed to convince Mrs. Zeresi to shut this down. My sources tell me that he is currently on his way here. The problem is that with his station in the syndicate he cannot be harmed, so I will have to get creative and find a way to delay him long enough to allow the auction to go through."

"It would be Scott," Drake said in a manner befitting a child receiving bad news.

"Do what you have to do Armand and make sure he can't stop us," Caelie said as she shook her head at the new development that had come their way. On one hand they stood to make a killing in terms of cubits but on the other was that Scott Tolan, Drake's cousin, could easily stop them if he made it to the warehouse.

**Cygnus Medical Center: **

"Talk," Lacey said as she eyed Livingston and Saunders.

"I've been under investigation the past week and a half, it seems that there are those on Caprica who want to see me brought down for various reasons," Saunders began.

"Why would that have anything to do with me?" Lacey asked, not willing to concede ground to either man.

"I thought somehow the Basileus had poisoned Melissa when she arrived here on the colony. She was fine when she left Caprica. It never crossed my mind that a criminal syndicate could be capable of doing something like what you did for my daughter," Saunders said.

"She caught her illness on Scorpia, according to the doctor it has a long incubation period before a person sees its effects," Livingston interjected before Lacey could say the same thing.

"I see…" Saunder said as he suddenly looked decidedly embarrassed by his actions, "In that case Miss Tolan I want to thank you and offer you my sincerest apology for having offended you."

"I accept, now if you will excuse me I have to get going," Lacey said and began to head for the door.

"If you'd be so kind, I'd like to clear this up with my wife as well and see if she would like to offer you her personal thanks. I know she'll be grateful for the opportunity," Saunders said before Lacey could open the door.

"Very well Mr. Saunders, I'll be happy to do that for you," Lacey said as she let go of the anger she was feeling and decided to let her nice side take over once again.

As the three left the room Livingston put his arm around Lacey, "That wasn't so bad now was it?"

"He apologized to me and I'm willing to forgive him," she said as she pushed his arm away.

"What about me? You seem to have become a bit hostile," he said.

"You've let it be assumed that we're a couple, and back in the room you did not even stand up for me when I was insulted. I think you have to work a bit more to have those strikes erased from your record," Lacey said as she picked up the pace and caught up with Arthur Saunders.

J.D. Livingston was in somewhat unfamiliar territory here and he tried to think of what to do. He turned back to the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor. Perhaps he could slowly win Lacey over again, all he had to do was visit the hospital's gift shop and buy something for Melissa and her as well.

Lacey wanted to give Melissa's parents some time alone with their daughter; she decided to spend some time in a nearby snack bar located on the floor. Six minutes later she was sitting in the room's dining area at a window seat overlooking the streets of Amarna. She took a bite of her Jupiter-sized Aurora Bar and followed by a drink of the energy beverage she had purchased to help keep her going.

What a day it had been, to think this was supposed to be a relaxing week back home. There was a sound to her left, she turned and saw that Louise Saunders had entered the room.

"Miss Tolan, may I sit down?" she asked.

"Sure, but shouldn't you be with your daughter?" Lacey asked, not in an unfriendly way, but more like she was curious as to why this woman had found her.

"Dr. Wales is in there with her right now and the nurses are taking her vital signs. I thought I'd step out for breather before I went back out there," Louise said as she made herself comfortable in her seat.

"There's a large balcony on the fifth floor you might be interested in, lots of fresh air to be had there," Lacey said hoping there was no bitterness in her voice. In truth she was tired of all the anger she carried with her today and just wanted to avoid another confrontation.

"I'd also like to talk to you about earlier; I guess you know the reputation your family has throughout the Twelve Colonies."

"Yeah, I've been aware of that for as far back as I can remember. It kind of comes with the territory."

"When we read the report that a Tolan had taken Melissa here to this hospital our thought immediately went to the worst-case scenario. My husband is being investigated right now, some baseless charges Adar trumped up for reasons I don't know. It seemed logical to us that he would be willing to use the Basileus to send us a message."

"So I ended up being viewed as the messenger. Listen, I know that being a member of the Tolan family can bring a certain stereotype to a person. I've dealt with it and Scott has dealt with it far longer than I can think of. I've spent my life torn between two worlds."

"I wake up in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. I have a question for you Miss Tolan,"

"First thing though, you can call me Lacey. 'Miss Tolan' has a formality to it that gets old after a while,"

"How have you dealt with being painted with such a broad brush?"

"My philosophy is to never be bullied into silence, never allow myself to be made into a victim, and accept no one's definition of my life. In other words, I define who I am. That's something my cousin Scott told me and I've tried to take it to heart. I've had to swallow my pride quite a bit at the Fleet Academy, but at my core I am still the same person."

"I believe it," Louise said after giving Lacey an appraising look, "you are not what I would have expected from a Tolan."

"That is one of those statements I take as a compliment. I have the last name but the way my aunt raised me made sure that I did not follow in the footsteps of my family."

"You're just not what I would expect of a Tolan," Louise said with a shake of her head as though she could not believe what she was seeing. It was then that she added, "Apparently your cousin is not either. What does Scott do for a living?"

"He's a flag officer in the Colonial Fleet, for the past year he's been the commander of Battlestar Group Sixty-Six. His flagship is the Victorious; they're part of the fleet that protects Caprica. He's the reason I wanted to become a Viper pilot, though I have an honorary uncle who'd have rather I'd have not only gone to Abry Military Academy but also took to flying Raptors."

"For what it's worth, Arthur and I are both terribly sorry for how we acted today. I don't think I can tell you enough how thankful we are that you and your cousin were there for her when she needed you, the both of you will always be welcomed at our house on Caprica. Where is Admiral Tolan at?"

"He's either trying to keep Melissa's friends out of trouble, or they ignored his advice and he's getting them out of trouble. They weren't exactly on the best of behavior when we met them."

"J.D. explained what was happening; Helen Octavia is probably the one at fault for it. That girl seems to relish in stirring up trouble wherever she is, obviously Jarelle was trying to impress her by picking a fight. J.D. told us that he's been here for Melissa and you ever since you arrived at the hospital."

"Is that right?"

"Yes, he told me how he helped to comfort you and keep you from breaking down with worry over Melissa's condition. If there was a man we would pick for her it would be him,"

"He really is something else," Lacey said while secretly wishing she had in fact sent her knee into his groin. She might have felt forgiving before but J.D. Livingston might have a long penance ahead of him.

"I'll go back to Melissa's room, please come by after you're done here," Louise said.

When she was gone Lacey shook her head at the turn of events and began to wonder if J.D. could keep a story straight to save his life.

"Hey Lace!" a voice called out.

'Speak of the devil,' Lacey thought as she looked at Livingston. He was holding his hands behind him back, obviously hiding something.

"J.D., came to console me so I don't lose myself with worrying over Melissa?"

"Ah, I see Louise came and talked to you. I was just doing that for dramatic effect, I thought my delivery was spot-on and she could tell I was making the story up as I went."

"Sweetie, I hate to tell you this but if that was your best acting performance then you won't be onscreen with Neveah Ratliff at any time in the future."

Livingston clutched his heart with while keeping his other hand behind his back, "The fair lady of Canceron wounds me greatly with that!"

"Still not getting any better at it," Lacey said with a serious look on her face like she was a judge on one of those acting competition shows on the television.

"You are just brutal, we really need to talk about your eye for talent," Livingston said with a smile as he walked up to where she sat, "Lace, now I want to close your eyes and be prepared to be surprised."

"I had a friend in high school whose boyfriend did that to her, it did not end well," Lacey said.

"I don't want to know just yet, just believe when I saw that I'm not going to do anything that you'll regret," Livingston said as he flashed a smile that he hoped would get through her defenses.

"Alright, but remember what I said about my two honorary uncles," Lacey said as she closed her eyes and waited for whatever her surprise was.

A few moments later Livingston told her to open her eyes. Lacey did and found she was looking at a basket of roses with a teddy bear in the middle of the arrangement. She spied a card there as well with a message written on it, she picked the card up and read it silently.

'When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.'

"It's my way of asking for your forgiveness for me being so thick-headed here today, am I forgiven yet?"

"Yeah but why did you put this card in there?" Lacey asked as she held up the small card with the message on it.

"What?" Livingston asked as he took the card and read what it said, "I can explain…there must have been a mix-up with another order and somehow the cards got switched. Mine was supposed to tell you how sorry I was and that I would give anything for you to forgive me for being an idiot."

"Well I guess I can do that. Mind if I say something to you, J.D.?" Lacey asked.

"Of course you can, what's on your mind?" he responded.

"I understand that you came here to Canceron to spend time with Melissa and perhaps start dating her, yet I sense that you might be feeling something towards me."

Livingston knelt in front of her and took hold of her hands, "I feel something Lace, even if I've tried to deny it. There is a spark between us; I just can't do anything about it right now. Melissa needs us here with her and we can't afford any distractions until she's well again."

"Fair enough, listen J.D. about earlier…I think I was more upset that you were willing to take the safe route. I understand the need to do things the easy way but it's not always a necessity. Do you understand where I'm coming from?"

Livingston gave her hand a squeeze, "Of course I do Lace. Let's go check on Melissa, I heard she's awake now so I'm sure she'll want to thank you in person."

**SS ****Chantrell, Marius Sea, Canceron:**

Gustavus Conyngham stood in the control booth at the edge of the Chantrell's landing pad, he had used the auto-piloting system to arrive at a part of the Marius Sea that was calm and had sent a message to the Valeriu informing them of the coordinates to find him at. Now it was night and the light from the three moons helped to illuminate the black sea that was around the freighter.

He checked the watch and saw that it was 21:34, in six minutes the shuttle carrying the team was supposed to arrive. He hit the buttons on the control panel and the lights on the landing pad came on with a strong enough illumination that it would be hard to miss.

So far the mission had gone well, and a part of him was glad to have it over with. It was bad enough having to work his way into the crew and hope his cover story would hold up, dealing with tossing seas and accommodations that were nowhere near as nice as those on the _Eurylade_ was enough to drive a man mad.

The wireless set crackled to life and a voice spoke, "_Chantrell _this is Bergeson, do you copy?"

Conyngham picked up the receiver, "Bergeson this is _Chantrell_, all is ready for your arrival."

"Great work Gus, we'll see you when we land," James Jarvis, the helmsman for the _Eurylade_ and Malka's shuttle pilot for this mission, said.

Conyngham waited and soon he saw the distinctive silhouette of the transport shuttle as it glided along the surface of the water. Watching it he swore that Jarvis was going to crash into the hull of the _Chantrell_ when suddenly it shot up just enough to avoid a collision. The shuttle then came to a hover above the landing pad and slowly lowered itself until it touched the deck. The thrusters went off and the shuttle's hatch opened, out stepped the crew that had taken the _Valeriu_. After the former Marines swept the deck for any sign of a trap one of them radioed that all was clear, it was then that the rest of the crew disembarked with Malka being the last one out.

"Major, welcome aboard the _Chantrell_, I'm sorry I couldn't have made her look more presentable for you," Conyngham said as she snapped off a salute which she returned.

"Not a problem Gus, you did a damn good job on this assignment. Mr. Jarvis will set a course for Olwin Beach, and Mr. Lorentson will set the explosive he brought along to destroy this ship once we arrive at the docks," Malka said to Conyngham as the rest of the crew went about preparing for the next phase of their journey.

"I have uniforms for us to wear on our trip to the docks, and then we can easily change into our attack gear when we storm the warehouse and eliminate Fabian and Persephone," Conyngham said in reference to the codenames given to Drake and Caelie Tolan.

"There's more," Malka said before adding, "an inside source tells us that Odysseus is in Amarna and may be heading to the warehouse as well."

Conyngham's eyes went wide, "You mean we're going to get another crack at him?"

Malka smiled, "I'm going to get another crack at him, I failed to take him out once but this time I won't hesitate to pull the trigger."

She had failed on Picon, but this time if she had the chance to fire at Scott Tolan she would not hesitate. At least that was what she tried to convince herself of, would she pull the trigger or would that part of her mind once again try to tell her that what she was doing was wrong and something akin to cold-blooded murder.


	4. Chapter 4: Best Laid Plans

**Chapter Four: Best Laid Plans**

**Interstate 79, Amarna:**

Eric Burrell made sure he kept pace with the car in front of him. A nervous sweat lined his head as he followed closely enough to keep up but not so close that it was noticeable. His mission was simple; to sabotage the person's car once the opportunity was presented.

His mobile phone rang and he picked it up, "Hello."

"Tell me you have good news to report," Armand Lee said.

"We're both on I-79 now, I'm waiting for the right moment to make my move," Burrell said defensively as he struggled to hold the phone and the steering wheel at the same time.

"Of course you are, now remember it's important that he not make it to the warehouse docks. You are not to kill him, but make sure his car is not able to start back up," Lee said as he emphasized the part about not killing the target. This was not a simple job due to the nature of who Burrell was following. Causing the death of Rear Admiral Scott Tolan would not enhance his career opportunities with the Basileus or his prospects for seeing another day.

"Understood Mr. Lee, I'm on it!" Burrell exclaimed as he put the phone down on the passenger seat of his car.

He looked down a moment to make sure the phone would not slide into the floor and when he looked up he could saw that Tolan's car had just exited the interstate. He began to try to move over when he realized that traffic was slowing down…really slowing down. As the situation began to dawn on him, it became clear what had happened. There had been a wreck and now traffic had come to a standstill, Tolan must have sensed it and got off the interstate to continue his drive towards the warehouse docks at Olwin Beach. Burrell slammed his fist into the dashboard and let out a string of curses, he'd have to get out of this traffic jam as quickly as he could and hope he could catch up to Tolan in time. Otherwise, Armand Lee would not be pleased with him.

**SS **_**Chantrell**_**, Marius Sea, Canceron:**

The Marius Sea had become peaceful; there was no land in sight just yet. The sun had risen and now the Marius Sea reflected the rays in a manner that struck her as majestic. Even though this was a mission where so much could go wrong, Galit Malka felt at peace even if it would only last a brief moment she was nevertheless grateful for it.

"How are you feeling Major?" Dr. Monica Astrid asked as she walked to where Malka was standing on the starboard wing of the bridge.

"I'm feeling better, I just had to force myself to work through the aftereffects of taking my injection," Malka admitted.

Astrid nodded, "It's unfortunate, but it's the only way to keep those old internal wounds of yours from opening back up. I don't think I need to tell you what would happen then."

"Are you sure it wouldn't have been preferable if I had died?" Malka asked. She had read the report on what the Ministry of Intelligence had done to her and she knew the medication she took was definitely not for the wounds she had received back on the SLA base.

"That's a terrible thing to say Major, think of all the good you've done since you were given this new mission by the higher-ups back in Gray," Astrid admonished her. She of course knew more of why Galit Malka needed the Avelin and it had nothing to do with the wounds she had received three years ago during the mission to rescue President Adar's sister and niece from the Sagitarron Liberation Army.

"Perhaps, but will the lives I've taken so far be worth it?"

"Ultimately yes," said Astrid feeling like she was walking in egg shells. "You know the MoI specifically selected you for this mission and so far the reports I've read show that you have exceeded their expectations."

"At least in this case I don't have to worry too much about if I'm doing the right thing," Malka finally said after a long silence.

"Drake and Caelie Tolan represent the type of evil we have to stamp out if we ever want this colony freed of the Basileus, and if we can take out Armand Lee that would go a long way to helping. Not to mention if we can finally eliminate Scott Tolan, I know that mission on Picon weighs heavily on your mind. You saw the after-action report and it cleared you, this is a chance to redeem yourself," Astrid said as she placed a reassuring hand on Malka's shoulder and walked away.

"Redeem myself," Malka said bitterly followed by a laugh that was just as bitter.

She turned away from the bridge wing and headed back for the wheelhouse, she may not be able to change the past and the anger she felt over what had happened but she could unleash that anger in a positive way by shutting down the smuggling ring of Drake and Caelie Tolan.

**Cygnus Medical Center: **

"My heroes," Melissa Saunders said with a smile as Lacey Tolan and J.D. Livingston entered the room.

"Let's not make too much out of it, I was just glad to be there to help," Lacey said as she tried to downplay her role in getting Melissa to the hospital.

"She may be modest about it, but I gladly take pride in playing the role of the hero," Livingston said as he walked over to Melissa's bed.

"You played it well, thank you for the flowers you sent. That really meant a lot to me," Melissa said as she took hold of Livingston's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Just doing my part," Livingston said beaming with a self appraisal.

"I'm going to go find Arthur and get a bite to eat, would you two mind staying here with Melissa?" Louise Saunders asked.

"Not a problem Mrs. Saunders, we'll be here until you come back," Lacey said as she moved out of the way so the door to the room would be cleared.

Lacey heard her mobile phone began to vibrate in her pocket; she fished it out and saw a familiar name on the display. She pressed the button to accept the call, "Hey Scott, what's up?"

"How's our friend doing?" he asked, there was the sound of a car engine in the background.

"She woke up not too long ago," she said as she looked and realized she might want more privacy. She mouthed the words 'Be right back' and left the room, "I'm back, had to leave the room so I could have some privacy."

"That's fine. I'm glad she's doing alright, how are things with her friend?"

Lacey let out a sigh, "Things are fine for the most part. He's an interesting one to say the least."

"I see…am I going to have to send some of my people after him to make him behave?" Tolan asked with a hint of mischief in his voice.

"Gods no, I don't think he can handle having both of my uncles scaring the living daylights out of him!" Lacey exclaimed, she knew that if you put them together and gave them a good enough reason Artimus Bowman and Tyrone Carter could easily scare a drunk to go sober.

"If you only knew how much people love watching them do their 'bad cop/worse cop' act, it's a hit at all of the officer dinner parties," Tolan said followed by a laugh.

"I'll be fine Scott, I know what I'm doing," Lacey said with as much conviction as she could muster.

"I'm heading to the Olwin Beach docks, so I'll get back in touch with you as soon as I can."

"Why are you going there?" she asked though she was afraid she knew the answer.

"Our other new friends have more than likely done something stupid and I'm getting them out of it," Tolan said with a weary sigh.

"Well you can't say you didn't warn them. Alright, I'll talk to you when you get done there."

"That's the plan, Love you Lace!" Tolan said.

"Love you too Scott," Lacey said as she ended the call.

"Who was that?" Livingston asked.

"Sneaking up on me now?" Lacey asked in a teasing manner.

"You know how those stalker tendencies of mine are," he said as he held up his hands in mock surrender.

"I'll keep that in mind," Lacey said before getting back to his question, "Scott called me, he wanted an update on Melissa."

"That's nice of him, how are my friends doing?" he asked but he caught a look on her face that disappeared quickly, it did not help him to feel comfortable.

"I can't put this politely, so I'm just going come out and tell you that your friends are idiots," Lacey said and she saw the defensive look on Livingston's face," they went off on their own and now Scott is trying to find them before the Basileus gets their hands on them."

"Why would they do that?" Livingston finally asked.

"A group of rich tourists on the beach at night, they're easy targets," Lacey said.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" he asked as he began to genuinely feel worried.

"We'll see, at least with Scott there they should be fine, so how's Melissa?" she asked as she tried to change the subject.

"She's weak and her body is sore, but other than that she's fine. She really appreciates what all we did to get her here, especially everything you and your cousin did."

"It wasn't that big of a deal, she was sick and needed medical attention," she said as she once again downplayed her role.

"You only used your family connections to get her taken care of quickly and used other benefits that come from being a member of the Tolan family."

"When you put it like that I sound like a walking violation of the Honor Code at the Academy," Lacey said with a laugh.

"I know there's more to you than the straight-laced Academy cadet, just a matter of seeing you when you're not trying to be this model officer-in-training," Livingston said and hoped he was not being too out-of-line.

"Thank you for that, but until things stop being so crazy this may have to do. Did I thank you for the flowers?" she suddenly could not remember if she had done that or not.

"You're welcome once again; the important thing is that you liked them. I hope you don't hold the card against me."

"Are you sure that was an accident?" Lacey asked

"Of course it was," Livingston said quickly, "why wouldn't there be?"

Lacey decided to let him off the hook for now, "Just a feeling I had," she explained diplomatically, "and I like to think I have good intuitive skills. Let's go back and see how Melissa is feeling, I don't want to leave her there by herself."

The two started walking back to Melissa's room when Livingston's phone began to go off.

"It's my parents, I'll be back when I get done talking to them," he said as he pressed the button to accept the call and took off down the corridor.

"I'll just go in there alone," Lacey said.

She walked in and saw that Melissa had adjusted the bed so she could watch something on the television.

"Where's J.D.?" Melissa asked when she saw Lacey.

"His parents called him on his mobile phone, he said he'd be here whenever he was done," she looked at the television, "Anything good on?"

"I'm watching a Neveah Ratliff movie, 'Bad Blood', I think this is one of the ones I haven't seen," Melissa said as she adjusted the volume.

"I've seen that one before; it's one of her more dramatic roles. She plays the part of a police officer really well. I have an honorary uncle who got me her autograph for my birthday," Lacey said as she remembered two years ago when Artimus Bowman had served as a liaison to the crew filming the movie 'Noble Causes' on the battlestar _Cerberus_.

"You have quite the uncle," Melissa said and then she decided to take advantage of the situation, "I know you haven't made a big deal of it, but I want to thank you for everything you did for me."

"Anybody would have done it," Lacey said.

"Perhaps, but you had no reason to do it for me. My friends were complete frakkers to you and your cousin. You could have just left me there to suffer on the beach and the truth is," Melissa's voice wondered off for a moment before she found what she wanted to say, "I would not have blamed you in the least for it. Most people I know wouldn't have done it under the circumstances."

"That's the advantage of being around strangers," Lacey said in a deadpan manner.

"One day you'll have to come stay at our house near Caprica City, it overlooks this lake and it's a great place to relax at," Melissa said.

"I don't know, your parents seemed a bit leery of having me here. It's the thing about my family," Lacey said knowing that the image of the Basileus was one that would follow her everywhere she went.

"It's my way of thanking you for saving my life; I promise you won't regret it. You can get away from school and just feel normal," Melissa insisted.

"Alright, my next break from the Academy I'll come visit. Scott's battle group might even be back from deployment."

"Your cousin is military, right?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah, he's the flag officer of Battlestar Group 66 and they're one of the groups tasked with defending Caprica."

"I imagine politicians on Canceron would love to have his endorsement," Melissa said, even though she was not interested in politics she knew enough from the talks her parents had that a military officer could usually help a campaign.

Lacey shrugged her shoulders, "Scott has always said that because he's an officer in the Colonial military that he has to be apolitical. Someone didn't tell James Garratty about that."

"What's the story behind that?"

Lacey leaned in, "James Garratty was a politician from the city of Noa here on Canceron, and he was running for Noa's seat in the Senate. He had heard that Scott was going to be filming a Colonial Fleet recruiting commercial and he made sure he visited the set during filming. He had his own film crew there and without Scott knowing it they filmed the two of them talking and used it to make a campaign commercial."

"I bet he was livid when he found out," Melissa said.

Lacey nodded, "He told our Aunt Lydia that he was going to go and exercise one of his rights as a Colonial citizen."

Melissa's eyes grew wide, "I hope it wasn't the one about the right to bear arms."

Lacey laughed, "I think his bare hands would have been enough. Besides there were some behind the scenes work done and he dropped the ad and issued a personal apology."

"Wonder what changed his mind," Melissa wondered.

"That was easy to do; Aunt Lydia had some of her people visit Garratty and 'persuaded' him to change his mind."

The door opened and in walked Livingston. Throwing his arms open as if expecting to be bombarded by embraces from all, he declared, "Hello Ladies, did you miss me?"

"Sure I did," Melissa said with a smile.

"As much as you hoped I missed you," Lacey added with a laugh.

The door opened again and this time a nurse entered, "Excuse me but visiting hours are over, Dr. Wales had assigned you a room for the night. If you'd please go ahead and leave that would be appreciated."

"Sorry Melissa, enjoy the movie and we'll be by in the morning to check on you," Lacey said as she got out of her seat and walked towards the door.

"Goodnight Melissa, if the nurses aren't looking you might find that I can deliver breakfast in bed," Livingston said as he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

"Goodnight you two, I'll see you in the morning!" Melissa said as she turned her attention back to the Neveah Ratliff movie.

"I guess this means we get to sleep together," Livingston said as they walked down the corridor towards the elevators.

"Not unless you put a ring on a very important finger and say some vows," Lacey said.

"I meant we get to share a bed in the hotel room," Livingston said as he gave her a mischievous look.

"Of course you did and that too is not going to happen," Lacey said with an extra emphasis on the word 'not'.

"If the doctor thinks we're dating he's probably picked a room with only one bed so therefore we have to share it," Livingston said as though he was reaching the end of a chain of logic that made perfect sense to him.

"You are going to show just how much a gentleman you are either going to take the floor or just use a rollout bed," Lacey said and gave him a look that would let him know it was unwise to argue.

"You win; I shall be the gentleman and take the floor. I hope you appreciate this, Lace."

"You'll get brownie points for it, no doubt about it."

**SS **_**Chantrell**_**, Marius Sea:**

"Major, we're about an hour away from the Parnell Strait," James Jarvis announced from the helm of the _Chantrell_. In order to keep a passing ship from wondering if something was amiss with the freighter, Malka had the crew change into sailor attire and roam the decks looking as though they were working. The sun had begun to rise, and the _Chantrell_ needed to be as inconspicuous as possible. Malka had worked out a plan to slow the ship down by claiming to have engine trouble, this would mean that they would arrive after it was dark and they could then use the cover of darkness to put their planned assault of the Basileus' warehouse base into action.

"Very good, make sure the computer keeps our course. The last thing we need is for it to deviate and put us on the rocks," Malka said as she scanned the horizon for any incoming ships.

"Major, can I have a word with you?" Keene Barron asked as he walked in from the charthouse.

"Of course, Captain, head back into the charthouse and we'll talk in there," Malka said as she put her binoculars down and walked into the charthouse where Barron had retreated back into.

When she closed and locked the door she asked, "Is there something on your mind Keene?"

"It's this plan you gave me. You're telling me that you want to use non-lethal force of Drake and Caelie Tolan?" Barron asked as he laid down the paper she had written her plan on. "Come on now Galit, I've known you long enough to know that's not really your style…unless you got something else planned?"

"I've thought about it and I believe it's the best course of action. You saw the same report I did before this mission began, Carson did not survive the last 'intelligence gathering' so we need new sources of intel," Malka said in reference to what had happened to the high-ranking member of the Basileus that they had captured. Bruce Carson had been a top lieutenant of Lydia Zeresi's, and he had proven to be an intelligence goldmine. It was the intel he provided that laid the groundwork for the failed assassination attempt of Zeresi.

"I had a feeling Bwye was going push him too hard," Barron said in disgust. Warren Bwye was perhaps one of the MoI's best interrogators but he also had on occasion caused the death of an individual due to his tactics. As one of the Directors once remarked; Malka was a scalpel, Bwye was a mallet.

"When we capture them we'll take them onboard the _Eurylade_ and transport them to Campion," Malka said, Campion was the city on Leonis where the MoI kept its Psychological Research Center at. This facility was also where all of the MoI's prisoners were kept for interrogation.

"I still wonder if this is a good idea," Barron said stubbornly as he clung to the idea that this was an ill-advised move.

"Does this mean that if I'm right I can't tell you that I told you so?" Malka said as she switched to a more playful tone of voice.

Barron smiled at her and said, "Yes Galit, if you're right, you can say you told me so. When you do tell me I know you will do it in that special way that makes us all love you so."

**Olwin Beach Warehouse: **

The four vehicles stopped outside of what officially known as the Colbourne Furniture Warehouse. Four men wearing the familiar black attire of chauffeurs stepped out and opened a back door of their respective vehicles. Out stepped the four men involved in the transaction that was to take place. Edmund Brewster, Bladen Dulany, Claude Bufford, and Phillip Nazro had come here to make the payments necessary to aquire the prisoners they had been promised were ready for transport. Nazro had a briefcase containing two million cubits worth of notes; he was there to buy the women being held here. The other three would make due bidding each other for the right to buy the men the Basileus were holding here.

"Welcome gentlemen," a voice called out from the entrance to the building.

"Mr. Lee, I thank you for the chance to do business with your people," Edmund Brewster said with an acknowledging nod of his head.

"I agree, you are helping my company to save money as well as commence valuable research," Claude Bufford said.

"You do me the honor by being here to bid your money for our fine goods," Lee said as he opened the door and motioned for the men to come inside, "please come in and make yourselves comfortable. Also bring your people in with you; the last thing we want is to draw suspicion."

Once the group had entered the building, where one of the Tolans suit-clad 'associates' led three of them to a waiting area, Lee pulled Nazro to the side.

"Mr. Nazro, your cargo is in the process of being loaded onto a shipping container for transport back to Scorpia. We'll just need to count your money and make sure it's all there and useable," Lee said and he recognized the offended look on the man's face, "a few months ago we had some 'issues' with a buyer who used counterfeit currency to make a deal and we got burned on it. No offense to you, of course, but we want to make sure all is well. Please go join the other three and I will let you know when you can take your cargo."

"I should send my bodyguard after you for such an insult," Nazro said in disgust.

"I see," Lee said as he drew a handgun out of a holster under the jacket of his business suit, "This gun was handcrafted to my specifications and I rarely draw it unless I mean to use it. Would you care for a demonstration?"

"No, that won't be necessary," Nazro said as he walked away from Lee and towards the waiting area where the other three men were seated at for the auction.

"A very wise choice," Lee said as he returned his gun to its holster.

**Bagley Street, Amarna, Canceron: **

Scott Tolan looked at the gas gauge and saw that it was inching closer and closer to 'Empty', and as much as he hoped he would be able to make it to the Olwin Beach docks.

'Better to play it safe,' he thought to himself as he scanned the street for a place where he could fill his car up at.

His eyes found a sign for a Super Caprimart store, and the signage on the road noted that there was a gas station on the premises. He pulled into the station, and was thankful to see that it was one of the ones that did not close at night.

He swiped his credit card and soon had gas flowing into the car; he set the switch to stay on 'pump' so that he could walk away from the car and make a phone call. He searched the memory and found the number he was looking for. As he went to press the button he took out a sheet of paper with an address written on it. It was the location of Drake and Caelie's warehouse base; he wanted to call Aunt Lydia to confirm that he had the right one.

It was then that he noticed three teenagers coming towards him, two men and one woman who looked like they were out looking to cause trouble. They locked eyes and in that moment Tolan had his suspicions confirmed, the three began to advance towards him and if they got close enough there could was a good chance that things could get ugly fast. He dropped the paper to the ground and gave the impression that he was going to pick it up; instead he quickly drew a pistol from his ankle holster and leveled it at the three.

"Let's not do this tonight," he said as he released the safety.

The three held up their hands and one of the men said, "Hey it's cool, we'll just be going."

"Good idea," Tolan said as they retreated and he put his gun back in its holster. He was in Basileus territory looking like he was a tourist, not how he envisioned a relaxing week back home with his cousin.

**Cygnus Medical Center Hospital Room C -24: **

"How do you think she's doing?" Livingston asked. He was now lying on a rollout bed while Lacey had the only bed in the room.

"She seemed to be feeling better, we'll know more tomorrow more than likely," Lacey said as she stretched and tried to get into a comfortable position.

"You do realize this floor is hard don't you?" Livingston asked.

"This bed isn't much better," Lacey countered.

"In that case you can come over here and join me. It might make this rollout bed much more comfortable," Livingston said as he patted the space beside him.

"Nice try but it's not happening," Lacey said as she laughed slightly.

"What's so funny?"

Lacey got her laughing under control, "I'm here in a hotel room with a guy that I'm not married to or even dating. I keep thinking about what my various relatives would have to say about that. In some of their eyes I might already be a fallen woman."

"If that's the case you can always live up to that, besides it might influence the outcome of that talk we had not too long ago."

"Once again J.D., nice try but it's not going to happen. Goodnight," Lacey said as she finally found a position that was somewhat comfortable and closed her eyes.

"Goodnight Lacey," Livingston said as he sat up and watched her sleeping. There was a part of him that could see the two of them possibly being together, but his practical side told him that his parents would never allow it. Melissa was the daughter of a banker and a socialite, members of the upper class of Caprican society. Lacey was from a crime family, and while she may not have been involved in any of the activities of the Basileus it did not change the fact that there was a stain on the family name that would follow her wherever she went.

**SS **_**Chantrell**_**,**

"We've passed through the Parnell Strait," Jarvis announced.

"Excellent, how much do we have until we dock?" Malka asked.

"About an hour or so," he said as he examined the readings on the monitors.

"Good, this is the part where it gets exciting," Malka said as she walked over to the ships intercom system and picked up the receiver, "Attention all hands we have an hour to go until we reach out destination. In half an hour I shall address all of you."

"Got a big speech planned?" Barron asked as he walked up to where she stood.

"This is an important mission Keene, the last thing we need to do is go about it like it's an ordinary job. Taking out Drake and Caelie Tolan will be a coup for us, as well as capturing them for interrogation."

Half an hour later she picked up the receiver and pressed the buttons to patch her through to the small crew she had on the ship, "To the crew of the Eurylade…this is Major Malka…I speak to you today because…we have embarked on a mission that is central to completing of our goal…a goal that is nothing less than the complete and total destruction of the Basileus. Today we will eliminate Drake, Caelie,…and Scott Tolan. While this will be another nail in the coffin, however it will not be the final nail in the coffin…we will continue to hit and hit them hard until the day arrives that Basileus can only found in the history books…and on that day we will have a round of drinks in celebration to our victory…our great achievement after this long struggle…to those who have been lost because of the Basileus…and those who gave their lives in the war that we are fighting against the Basileus…so say we all…so say we all…"

**Olwin Beach Warehouse: **

Tolan pulled the car up to the warehouse and noticed the four luxury vehicles parked outside, something told him that whoever they belonged to was not here for a tour.

"Who goes there?" an armed security guard asked as he spotted Tolan.

"I'm here to see Drake and Caelie," Tolan said as he walked up where the guard stood.

The guard raised his weapon, "You dropped the wrong name, now tell me why I shouldn't shoot you were you stand."

"Shooting me would be a mistake, just tell them that Scott is here to see them."

The guard flicked a switch and a red targeting beam found its way to the spot on Tolan's chest where his heart was at, "Nice try there pal, but if you don't mind I'll just believe you're trying to pull a fast one."

Tolan stood there not making a move, making the most of his cool exterior. Instead he said, "You can check my wallet and you'll see that I'm Scott Tolan, or you can explain to Mrs. Zeresi why you're pointing a gun at me."

The guard fished Tolan's wallet out of his back pocket and looked over his identification cards, both civilian and military, before deftly putting the wallet back into the back pocket.

"Mr. Tolan I'm sorry I pointed a gun at you. The bosses are nervous about operatives around here. Do you still want inside the facility?"

"Yes, don't worry about announcing me to my cousin. He'll know that I'm here soon enough," Tolan said as the guard walked with him to the door and buzzed him in.

"Could I ask you a favor?" the guard asked.

"You can ask, just not sure if I can grant it," Tolan said as he wondered what the guard had in mind.

"My son is graduating from high school next year and I was wondering if you have the influence to get him into the Fleet Academy."

"I might, what's your son's name and yours?"

"My name is Joe Brannon; my son's name is Kyle. He's a senior at Northcrest High School and he's going to graduate shortly. He was hoping to get into Theron Payne College. He's a good kid; I just don't want him to get mixed up with the Basileus like me."

Tolan thought about it before he finally said, "You and the guards help me with what I need here and I can guarantee Kyle will be attending the Fleet Academy."

Brannon called over his radio for the guards to join him at the warehouse entrance, it took a couple of minutes but there were eight other guards at the entrance.

"Who's the tourist?" one of them asked as he eyed Tolan.

"This man is Scott Tolan, show some respect!" Brannon snapped at the man who quickly lost his menacing demeanor.

"Sorry sir, I didn't know," the man asked.

"Who are you?" Tolan asked.

"Me sir, I'm Eugen Pedersen," the man said.

"Pedersen, you and Brannon are going to escort me into there along with the rest of these guards," Tolan said to Brannon and Pederson.

"What about Drake and Caelie?" one of the guards asked.

"Now listen," Tolan began, "this is one of those cases where are you either loyal to my cousins or you're loyal to me. I happen to have more of a claim to the leadership of the Basileus than Drake could hope to. Think of how much weight my word carries with Lydia Zeresi, and then figure where your loyalties lie."

The guards seemed to have had little trouble deciding which side they were on. A few moments later Brannon turned to Tolan, "We're on your side Mr. Tolan, we have your back in there."

**Olwin Beach Docks: **

The _Chantrell_ slid into its berth with no problems; the workers who moored the vessel into place were not normal dockworkers. Instead they were handpicked MoI agents who were here to cover the arrival and departure of Malka's team.

Galit Malka was the first one down the ramp that had been attached to the main deck from the dock.

"Lieutenant Salvatore Zavatta from the Amarna office, I trust you ran into no problems on the way here," he said.

"Everything went well Mr. Zavatta, are your people in position?"

Zavatta nodded, "We're in position to get you and your people out of here as quickly as possible. We've also been in contact with Lt. Gravina and he has the _Eurylade_ in position to retrieve both you and your prisoners."

"Good, get in position and my people will begin their assault," Malka said as she motioned to Barron to get the rest of the group off the ship.

**Olwin Beach Warehouse, Loading Dock: **

"Drake, Caelie, it's been a while since we last talked," Tolan said as he walked into the loading dock where two containers were sitting with the doors locked.

"Who are you?" Nazro asked at the sight of the man who looked as though he were dressed as a tourist.

"Rear Admiral Scott Tolan," Tolan looked around and saw that none of the people were too thrilled with his being there.

"Scott, what's the matter?" Lee asked as he walked up to where Tolan was standing.

"I came here to find a group of Caprican tourists who I think might have met my cousin and his wife," Tolan said as he motioned to where Drake and Caelie were standing.

"We haven't seen a group of tourists anywhere near here," Drake said.

"He's right Scott, you know we would never kidnap people," Caelie added quickly.

"Can you send him away so I can collect my merchandise?" Bufford asked impatiently.

"What's in the containers?" Tolan asked.

"Stuff," Caelie said.

"Nice technical term there, what kind of stuff?"

"No need to check it out, this really isn't something to concern you," Lee said.

"I think I'll be judge of that. Pedersen get some of the guards and open this container," Tolan said to Pedersen as he walked over to the container that had not been locked yet and opened it.

"He found the women I bought," Nazro said as he realized that Tolan had opened the container with the four girls for which he had paid a large sum of cubits.

**Amarna Dockhouse, Upper Levels: **

"Journeyman, this is Figure Head. Are you in position?" Keene Barron asked over his short-wave scrambled wireless.

"This is Journeyman, I'm setting the charges now," Duke Lorentson said, he was moving along the locked doors of the upper level of the warehouse setting his explosive charges. When the word was given he would detonate them and the team would charge in.

"This is Jaguar, I've infiltrated the base and am setting up the nest," Malka said from her position inside the warehouse. She could see that there was a deal going down and then someone she did not expect to see had arrived. She could see that Scott Tolan was there for some reason she could not understand.

"This is Vicar, my fire team is in position and ready to go," Robert Alistair said from his position near one of the doors that Lorentson had set to explode.

"This is Rancher, my team is in position as well and ready to engage," Lina Balaconis said from the opposite side of the warehouse.

"Remember with Fabian and Persephone use non lethal force, we want them taken alive. As for the rest, shoot to kill," Malka said as she sized up the group gathered on the loading dock.

"Charges are set, will detonate on your order," Lorentson said after putting the last of the charges in place.

"Go," Malka said as she waited for the charges to explode.

**Warehouse Interior: **

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the auction is off," Tolan said to the assembled group of businessmen.

"You do know a certain person has to approve that?" Caelie asked.

"Ah yes," Tolan said as he fished a piece of paper out of his pocket, "Drake, Caelie, and Armand I want the three of you to look at this and let it sink in. Lydia Zeresi herself has agreed to put an end to human trafficking effective immediately."

Before anyone could speak there was a series of deafening explosions on the upper levels.

"What the frak?" Lee said as he drew his custom handgun and ran to a nearby container for cover.

Tolan heard shots and thought he heard two rounds shoot past where he stood. He looked and saw both Drake and Caelie lying on the floor and they were not moving. His military training took over and he ran to the nearest position that provided cover.

"Decided to join me?" Lee asked.

"Don't get your hopes up too much Armand, it's only until I can make it to the exit," Tolan said as he heard more gunfire exchanged between the guards and the intruders who had just blasted various entrance points into the warehouse.

"Perhaps it would be best if we tried to make it out together," Lee said.

"Why do you suddenly care so much about what happens to me?" Tolan asked.

"Let's just say that our fates have become entwined together."

Galit Malka looked through the scope on her sniper rifle. She found one of the Basileus' lackeys clumsily trying to find cover. Putting his head into her crosshairs she squeezed the trigger and took out him and another one of the Basileus guards who were trying to make their way to where Drake and Caelie Tolan lay unconscious.

'This is too easy,' she thought as she took down her third guard.

"We're making our way down to the loading dock, remember our orders are to shoot to kill," Barron said over the wireless radio.

**Loading Dock: **

"Do you have a weapon?" Lee asked Tolan.

Tolan nodded and took the pistol he kept in an ankle holster, "Never leave home with out it."

"I'll make a run for it to the door and you cover me," Lee said and before Tolan could protest he sprinted for the door. There was the sound of a gunshot and Lee almost crumpled to the floor with a gunshot wound to his right leg. He managed to limp to the door, but instead of covering for Tolan he limped out the door and vanished into the night.

"That frakker," Tolan spat as he tried to make his way to the same exit. He looked and saw the black battle armor-clad soldiers beginning to storm the loading dock and were shooting anything that moved. One of them made eye contact with him and raised an assault rifle to fire. Tolan squeezed off a round and hit the person in the shoulder. The soldier went to the ground in pain. He ducked behind a stack of metal crates and hoped that would give him some cover. What he did not realize was that he was in the sights of Malka's sniper rifle.

"Hello Admiral Tolan," she said as she lined him up in her sights. This was it, a moment to take out the man the MoI considered as great of a threat as Lydia Zeresi. It felt as though there was something coursing through her body along with her blood, something that made her feel every bit the weapon she had been designed to be.

In her mind though a conversation from five years ago began to play and it was keeping her from pulling the trigger and ending Tolan's life.

_"I know that I won't be coming back from this one so do me a favor would you? Tell Artimus to stop wallowing in self pity over that girl, Brooke."_ She had whispered that into Tolan's ear shortly before he left for the hangar bay back on the base of the Sagitarron Liberation Army. She had agreed to stay behind so that he and the others could live.

_"Will do Galit, it's been an adventure,"_ Tolan had said that shortly before she wrapped him in a huge hug.

_"The pleasure's been mine Scott; I told you by the time this was over you'd like me."_ She had made peace that she was going to die that day, the last thing she expected was for her to survive and the Ministry of Intelligence to turn her into some sort of super-soldier designed to eliminate the Basileus.

Then a conversation from two years ago began playing in her mind, it was on Picon the day she tried to assassinate Tolan for the first time. She had arranged a car accident and when he was emerged from the wreckage she was waiting there for him with a gun. She had offered to end him quickly if only he would turn around and get on his knees so she would not have to look him in the eyes.

"_Somewhere in there is the Galit Malka I served with three years ago on the SLA base. The one who willingly stayed behind so others could live, you're telling me that you're not her?"_

"_She's there; the MoI changed me into a weapon. I'm their instrument of war against the Basileus. I have to kill you Admiral,"_ It was then that Malka felt her resolve began to waver.

"_You're not a weapon Galit, you are a person and a good one at that."_ Could Tolan have sensed her losing her conviction?

"_You're wrong."_ She had hoped that she believed her own words.

"_In that case Galit,"_ Tolan had said to her before quickly pressing his forehead to the gun, _"Go ahead and kill me, end my life if that's how committed you are to this. You'll prove the Galit Malka I knew is dead and gone, but you will have to look me in the eyes and pull that trigger. If you're just some tool the MoI is using then go ahead and end me, take my life Galit!"_

Her training kicked in and she pulled the trigger to send a round towards Scott Tolan, the result was a flesh wound on his right arm. It would have been a direct hit if one of the guards had not pushed Tolan out of the way at the last moment. Yes, she had pulled the trigger and shot him this time. Perhaps it was the result of the training she had undergone, that time on Picon was one of her first assignments after the MoI had finished her training under Project Lysippe. That day she had tried to kill him but could not bring herself to do it, this time she was able to fire at him without a moment's hesitation.

Tolan's right arm sizzled with pain, whoever had done that had injured him but not killed him. He sat up and saw that Brannon had pushed him out of the way. Another second and he would have been dead

"I owe you for that one," he said to Brannon who simply gave an acknowledging nod to show that he understood. Tolan looked around to see what he could do to escape. He saw an exit door and decided to take advantage of the confusion, he motioned for Brannon to follow him and the two men began to make their way towards the door that Lee had exited out of. He looked back and saw that the four businessmen and the guards had by now all been shot and were lying on the floor dead. If he did not want to join them he had better leave. He quietly moved to the door and got out before anyone noticed him.

"Jaguar, are there any more targets?" Keene Barron asked.

"Negative Figurehead, all targets are down," Malka said.

"What about Odysseus?" Barron asked, referring to the name the MoI had given Scott Tolan.

"I shot at him but he escaped before I could finish him off," Malka said.

"Right," Barron was quiet for a moment before he said, "Let's get Fabian and Persephone out of here, and we'll call the police before we leave. Also, Jarvis took a hit to the shoulder but his armor stopped the bullet from going through."

"Good, let's get out of here. I want the police to think this was a gang incident," Malka said as she began to disassemble the sniper rifle.

"Jaguar, my police scanner is picking up a call from Tolan. He's saying there's been a shootout involving the Basileus, we may not have much time to get out of here," Balaconis said.

"Out of here on the double," Malka called out.

"What about Tolan, if he's nearby we can finish him off," Barron said.

Malka shook her head, "No, we need to get out of here before our cover is blown."

**Thirty-Seven Minutes Later, Olwin Beach Warehouse: **

"Clean shot at least, I'll just stitch it up and you should be fine," the paramedic said as she examined the wound on Tolan's right arm.

"Thanks," Tolan said as he saw one of the uniformed Amarna Police Department officers come towards him.

"How bad is it?" he said as he gestured to the wound.

"I've had worse," Tolan said.

The officer offered a handshake, "Lieutenant Antonio Apolito, I'm in charge of the investigation."

Tolan accepted the handshake, "Rear Admiral Scott Tolan, I came across the scene and called it in."

"Care to explain to me what happened?" Apolito asked as he sat down on the left side of the ambulance bumper Tolan sat on.

"I was looking for a group of tourists I had warned to stay away from the docks, when I heard the gunfire coming from inside the warehouse."

Apolito nodded, "Interesting, now why is it that you were looking for this particular group of tourists?"

"My cousin and I were at the beach yesterday when we came across them; one of the girls got violently ill and threw up so my cousin and a friend took her to Cygnus."

"How is it that you got separated from the group?"

"I went and bought a change of clothes and when I came out they were gone," Tolan said as he wondered just what would have happened if they had actually listened to him.

"How did you know to look for them here?"

Tolan smirked, "I'm a Tolan, I know what connections to use to find information I'm looking for."

"So I gathered," Apolito turned to one of the EMTs, "Hey Gorseinon, how's that wound on the Admiral's arm?"

EMT Janelle Gorseinon replied after finishing her work on bandaging up Tolan's wound, "It's a flesh wound so it should heal up nicely. A slight difference of trajectory and it probably would have been different."

"You're a lucky man, Admiral Tolan," Apolito said as he turned and walked away.

Tolan stood up and suddenly his body let him know that he was incredibly tired. He would go to the house he kept in Amarna and get some sleep, and then he would head over to Cygnus Medical and see how Lacey and the other two were.

_**Eurylade:**_

The shuttle docked with the faststar, and off stepped Malka. Waiting for her was Carlos Gravina.

"Welcome home Major," he said.

"Good to be back Mr. Gravina," Malka said as she looked around the small confines of the _Eurylade_.

The rest of her crew disembarked the shuttle, Lorentson and Balaconis were carrying the unconscious Drake and Caelie Tolan.

"Take them down the hold and make them 'comfortable' for the trip to Leonis," Malka said to the two who nodded and asked for help in getting the two Basileus higher-ups moved to the cargo storage area that served as an impromptu prison/interrogation center.

"How'd it go down there?" Gravina asked Malka and Barron.

"It went well I think," Barron said as he looked to Malka to gauge her reaction.

"We missed one of our targets but we got those two and that should count more than anything. Taking out Odysseus would have been a bonus," Malka said.

"There will be other opportunities," Barron said.

"Yes there will be, and we'll be ready for it," Malka said as her and Barron began to leave the room to make their way to the bridge of the faststar.

**The Next Morning:**

Lacey woke up and expected to see Livingston asleep on the rollout bed, instead the bed was empty. She looked towards the bathroom but the door was open. Wherever he was, he was anywhere but here in the room. She threw the covers back and got out of the bed. She went to the bathroom and locked the door; the last thing she wasted was to be walked in on while she was in the shower.

Twenty minutes later Lacey had showered and put her clothes on. She had a feeling that Livingston had gone to visit Melissa so she'd just stop by there and see how things were. She made her way through the corridors of the hospital until she reached Melissa's room. She opened it to see how Melissa was doing when she saw something that actually caught her slightly off guard.

Melissa was very much awake, and in the process of locking lips with J.D. Livingston. Her stomach felt like someone had punched her hard in it. Livingston had clearly made his choice, yet there was a strong feeling of disappointment coming over her. She simply turned and left the room with the door closing behind her.

"Did you hear that?" Melissa asked when she heard the door close.

"Yeah but I'm sure whoever was there isn't there anymore," Livingston said.

"Could you look for me, I don't want my parents to find us like this," she said.

"Alright, I'll go look and see if we were busted," Livingston said with a smile as he walked to the door and opened it. He looked down the left side of the corridor but saw nobody who looked familiar. It was when he looked down the right side of the corridor that he saw her. Lacey Tolan was walking away from the room, looking as though she was trying to put as much distance between her and Melissa's hospital room as possible.

He ran down and managed to catch up to her, but she showed no signs of stopping. He grabbed her elbow and she spun around and sent a knee to his groin. He fell against the wall and felt like his legs were going to give out on him.

"You should know better than to grab a person from behind, especially in a city like this," Lacey said as she watched to see if Livingston would fall to the ground or not.

"I take it you're not too happy with me," he finally said though his voice was barely a whisper.

"I won't say I'm not taking any pleasure in this, I'm wondering if you played me all this time," she said, still not yet reaching to help him.

"Wasn't like that, I didn't know what I was going to do…can you please help me up?"

Lacey walked up and helped him up, it seemed if she had not helped him up. Together they walked to a nearby bench and she helped him to sit down.

"You must really hate me right now," he finally said.

"I want to, I really want to, but I can't do it…in a way I should be proud of you J.D. because you made a choice. I am disappointed that it wasn't me," Lacey said, her anger starting to cool off some.

"I thought about it Lace, and truth is Melissa is a safer choice. Both of her parents are successful and highly-regarded members of Caprican society, and that's something I aspire to be a part of one day. Melissa and I make a good match on several levels. You're an exciting choice and all, but I just can't shake the fact is…well…with the exception of yourself and your cousin your family has a reputation that's pretty bloody and violent," Livingston said as he tried to phrase his words as well as he could.

"Nice to know how highly-regarded I am," Lacey said in a dead-pan voice.

"Listen, Melissa would like to spend time with you and I think she's sincere since you helped save her life and you're someone I want to be friends with as well," Livingston said.

"I'm not up to your standards of dating but I am ok as a friend," Lacey said.

"Let's not put it that way, but just give it some thought…I'm going back to Melissa, just take your time and if you are still interested in talking to me then by all means call me and we can go from there. Just don't snub Melissa because of this, I'd hate for her to get hurt by all this," Livingston said as he got up and walked away.

"Don't hurt Melissa's feelings, at least you're concerned about hers," Lacey thought with a trace of bitterness.

She fished her mobile phone out of her pocket and pressed the button to call Scott. A few rings later her cousin answered the phone.

"Hey Lace, what's going on?" he asked.

"Looks like our friend here is going to make a full recovery," she said.

"That's a relief, are you going to stay there for now?" he asked.

"Actually Scott, I was wondering if you'd come here and get me. For what it's worth I've had enough of hospitals to last me a while, I'd like to do something to enjoy the rest of my break before I go back to Picon," she said.

"I have some business to take care here at the docks and then I'll be there…" Scott said before pausing, "What do you say we leave Canceron and go to another colony, I think I've had enough with visiting the family to last me a lifetime."

"You read my mind," Lacey said as her mind started to think of other places they could go visit.


	5. Epilogue: Smoke and Mirrors

**Epilogue****: Smoke and Mirrors**

**One Month, Three Weeks Later:**

**Caprica City, Executive Mansion:**

"Mr. and Mrs. Saunders, the President will see you now," Clarice Madden, President Richard Adar's personal assistant, said as she motioned for Arthur and Louise Saunders to follow her.

The two got up from their seats in the waiting area and walked into the Executive Office where they were greeted by the sight of President Adar and Admiral Peter Corman. The President was sitting behind his desk while Corman was sitting on a sofa not far from the desk.

"Mr. and Mrs. Saunders, thank you so much for coming. Would you be so kind as to have a seat," Adar said as he motioned to another sofa that was nearby.

"Thank you Mr. President," Arthur said as he did all he could to keep his civility in check. He had no care for the man and after all his daughter had been through on Canceron this was the last place he wanted to be.

"If you don't mind me being direct," Louise said, "Why are we here meeting with the two of you?"

"If you'll allow me to introduce myself, I am Admiral Peter Corman and I'm the Chief of Fleet Operations for the Colonial Fleet," Corman said smiling with a characteristic curved lip indicating he enjoyed announcing himself as he stood and walked over to shake hands with the Arthur and Louise.

"A pleasure to meet you Admiral Corman, may I ask why you're here?" Arthur asked.

"Recently you made some inquiries regarding a certain flag officer in the Fleet," Corman said.

"Scott Tolan," Louise said in a way that made it more of a statement than a question.

"Yes he's the one we were told you trying to get information on," Corman said.

"Is there a reason why we should not try to get whatever information is on him; the man is from a crime family and he's now a flag officer in the Colonial Fleet…I remember when Admiral Stryker himself spoke against this man and I believe he was on to something."

Corman mentally cringed at the mention of that interview, "Yes well you see there was a chance that you would have uncovered something you were not meant to see."

"What would that be?"

"About five years ago then-Commander Tolan used his contacts with the Basileus to help in a rescue operation. For various reasons that information has been classified and not available for release to anyone who does not have the proper clearance. Truth is, you were close to discovering this bit of information and the idea of it being released would be embarrassing for various people, and that is a risk we can ill afford to take."

"What are you going to do?" Louise asked.

"That depends on you," Adar said before adding, "I know I instigated the investigation into your bank Mr. Saunders and I can call it off if you agree to a few simple things."

"What would that be?" Arthur asked as he wondered just what the President had in mind.

"First is that you need to stop trying to dig into Admiral Tolan's past. The second is that you provide him an audience so he can air whatever differences may have arisen over your daughter's trip to Canceron," Adar said and waited for a response.

"I do this and you will stop this investigation that's going on with my bank?"

Adar nodded, "I'm not an unreasonable man, a favor for a favor is simple enough in my opinion."

"You have a deal Mr. President," Arthur said as he shook hands with both the President and Admiral Corman before leaving the room with his wife.

When both were gone Corman turned to Adar, "That went well enough. As for Tolan…I always had a feeling promoting him to flag rank was going to be trouble. Maybe Stryker was right to question it."

Adar let out a small chuckle, "Perhaps but Tolan did me a favor when my sister and niece were kidnapped; even with the influence of his father-in-law I was able to return that favor."

**Two Months Later:**

**Saunders Residence, Caprica:**

The lake looked absolutely picturesque, a quality helped only by Caprica's clear blue sky. There was a boat out in the middle of the lake with two girls onboard enjoying the beautiful weather.

"If you look off to the distance that's the residence of Gaius Baltar," Melissa Saunders told her companion and hoped she did not sound like a tour guide.

"Do you know him?" Lacey Tolan asked.

"We've talked a few times. I think his interest may be more than friendly. How are things at the Academy?"

"I told my roommate I was going to be here for the weekend. She told me that she figured that with me being from Canceron I'd be on the beach somewhere."

"Now that you mention it, why aren't you on the beach?"

"Melissa, does it look like I tan?"

"Yeah you have a point there. Have you heard from J.D. lately?"

"We've exchanged a few e-mails over the past couple of months," Lacey said and she saw the concerned look on Melissa's face, "You don't have to worry about me wanting to date him, I think that would be sort of awkward now."

"Thanks Lace, it would be as awkward as it is with my friends I went to Canceron with."

"What are they doing nowadays?"

"Megan is only leaving her parents' house to attend therapy for what she went through. Jessi said she was going to Aerilon and wouldn't be back or speaking to anyone anytime soon. She didn't even leave a forwarding address with her parents. Helen…oh Helen is blaming me for everything that happened. She told her parents that I goaded a fight with a group of gangsters and got all of them captured and held hostage. Her parents gave my parents an earful and it got ugly. It got very ugly," Melissa said with a trace of sadness in her voice.

"What about the guys?"

"They have nothing to do with me and apparently prefer to keep it that way. It seems this whole trip was solely my idea and I antagonized the Basileus enough that they kidnapped everyone except for me and J.D. so him and I could have some alone time."

"What did J.D. say about all of this?"

"Would you believe that's why we broke up? He said he felt compelled to back up his friends on the issue and wanted to avoid a confrontation so it was best to break things off with me. He said he simply did not feel the same way towards me as he did before."

"I could send him an e-mail to put him in his place."

Melissa shook her head, "That's thoughtful Lace but I don't want to drag you into this whole mess. I heard your cousin was meeting with my parents to sort out what really happened."

**Saunders Residence:**

**Formal Sitting Room:**

In the formal sitting room of the Saunders residence, Arthur and Louise Saunders were finishing up their meeting with their guest.

"You're telling me that everything we heard about the trip was a lie?" Arthur Saunders said as though he could not believe what he was hearing.

Rear Admiral Scott Tolan nodded, "I had not met any of them before that day. I was simply on leave spending time with my cousin while she was on break from the Academy. Helen Octavia was the one who instigated things by trying to start a fight between her boyfriend and I. By the time I got to the docks where they had been abducted to Melissa was already under sedation at the hospital."

"Why would her friends turn on her like that?" Louise Saunders asked.

Tolan shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea unless they wanted to disguise their own failings in this story. It's common knowledge that Canceron can be dangerous, especially when you're dealing with the Basileus. Had it not been for my family ties I probably would not have been able to help them."

The Saunders stood up and Tolan did as well.

Arthur extended a hand to Tolan, "Admiral Tolan I know you've said you don't expect any compensation for what you did for us but if you ever need anything I promise I will do what I can to help you."

Louise broke her upper-class restraints by giving the admiral a kiss on the cheek, "You have to understand that as a mother I cannot express enough how grateful I am for what you did for our daughter."

"Mr. and Mrs. Saunders I'm glad I was able to assist her," he said as he turned and exited the house. As he headed to his car he looked out onto the lake and saw the boat that Lacey and Melissa were on. She did not know that he was here and he did not want to intrude on her.

**Gray, Picon:**

**Ministry of Intelligence Headquarters:**

"Major Malka and Captain Barron, I want to congratulate you on a job well done," Executive Director Joseph Shea said as he walked up and shook hands with the top two officers of the Eurylade.

"Thank you Director," Major Galit Malka said.

"Glad to serve Director," Captain Keene Barron said after Malka had spoken.

"It's taken a couple of months but we've managed to whittle down the defenses of Drake and Caelie Tolan and they've begun spilling information about the Basileus and its higher-ups that should prove valuable to us," Shea said as he began looking over the information that had been sent from Leonis.

"Do you think we'll get another crack at taking out Lydia Zeresi soon?" Barron asked.

"Chop off the snake's head and the body will die is that it, Captain? Yes you will, but there is one matter I need to clear up. What happened with Scott Tolan?"

"What do you mean sir?" Malka asked.

"You know what I mean, from the reports I read is that you had a clear shot at him yet all you managed to do was graze his arm."

"A case of the circumstances Director," Malka offered.

"Would you care to explain the part of your after-action report where you stated that he should no longer be considered a 'target of interest' by the MoI?"

"After doing further research I became convinced that Admiral Tolan does have blood ties to the Basileus but no actual involvement with them. It is one thing to kill Basileus higher-ups…it's another thing to assassinate Colonial Fleet officers based on their bloodlines."

"Captain Barron, do you concur with Major Malka's findings?" Shea asked.

"Yes sir I do. I feel it would be best to take Admiral Tolan's name off of the list of Basileus members who need to be assassinated."

"Malka I'm going to give you this one," Shea said after some mental deliberation, "However this is a one-time deal. The rest on that list are marked for death without any arguments."

"Understood," Malka said.

"Good, now I need you to take the Eurylade out to Tauron to investigate reports that have surfaced of weapons being smuggled off-world to the various colonies. You are to find them and put a stop to their activities," Shea said as he passed two large envelopes to Malka and Barron.

"We'll put a stop to it," Malka said.

"I was hoping to hear that," Shea said before adding, "You two are dismissed. Return to your ship and good hunting out there."

As the two are walking away from Shea's office, they passed another MoI agent and when Malka realized who it was she said, "Keene would you give me a minute."

"Sure," replied Barron as he walked away.

Malka turned to the MoI agent and asks, "So how have you been Arthur?"

"I have been good, I really can't complain. The Erebea mission is keeping me busy but it's some of the best work I've done since I joined up. It's always nice to see you, Galit," replied Major Arthur Wallace, as they exchanged a handshake. Galit had trained Wallace during his time at the "Ranch" on Leonis and they have developed a friendship however Wallace realized that he could not get too close to Galit. Few could without getting burned.

"Tell me Arthur, anything new in your life? For example, something like a woman name Whitney?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, Galit," Wallace said as he tried to put on his best Triad face. Something told him a seasoned veteran like Galit Malka could see right through it.

"Yeah right and you are next going to tell me you don't have some type of agenda."

"Everyone has an agenda and that includes both you and me," replied Wallace. Truth of the matter was that he hated the fact that she could easily tell when he was lying. Along with Elizabeth Stryker, she was one of the few people who could.

"Alright Arthur you go ahead and keep your secret. I will find out someday," replied Malka as she started walking away to catch up with Keene Barron.

'If you only knew what I'm planning; you would probably kill me,' Arthur thought to himself as he started to walk the other way holding a brown file that read Operation Death Knell.

**Two Hours Later:**

**Executive Mansion:**

"Admiral Corman, you sent for me?" Tolan asked once he stepped off of the elevator and onto the second floor of the Executive Mansion.

"President Adar wanted to have a word with you," Corman said as he started down the hallway with Tolan following.

"I have no idea what it's about, do you sir?" Tolan asked.

"It involved the Saunders family, I'm sure you don't need me to go into more detail about that," Corman said as he turned a corner on the right and headed to a door that was two doors down on the left.

"Say no more, I just finished talking to them not long ago. Seems they changed their tune about what happened back on Canceron."

Corman simply nodded and opened the door. He walked in and took a standing position to the right of Adar's desk.

Tolan walked in and closed the door behind him, "President Adar, you wished to see me?" Tolan asked.

"Admiral Tolan, I wanted to let you know that you have no need to worry about the Saunders family. I took the liberty of making sure that you won't have any hint of scandal breathing down your neck because of what happened on Canceron," Adar said with a satisfied smile on his face.

"I thank you for that sir, though I am not sure why you felt compelled to intervene on my behalf."

"You did me a favor some time ago. I wanted to repay you for what you did for me when you used your family connections during that hostage situation. Along with nominating you for flag rank I convinced the Saunders family to avoid any sort of investigation into your personal life."

"You did not have to do that Mr. President but thank you for your intervention. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tend to some work at home before my battle group goes on its next deployment," Tolan said as he stood up to leave.

Pleasantries and formalities were exchanged. As Tolan was walking towards the door he heard Adar tell him that they were now even. Adar may have helped his career out but this was minor in comparison to the fact that Tolan was dealing with the consequences of coming to Lydia Zeresi, his aunt and the leader of the Basileus, for a favor.

"With all due respect sir, I don't think we'll ever be even on that account," Tolan said as he left the room.

He found a side entrance that would allow him to leave the building without having to mingle with the crowd. The more distance he could put between himself and the President's house the better he would feel.

It would be a couple more days until the _Victorious_ and BSG-66 deployed again to patrol the area surrounding Caprica. The idea of spending it with Emily and their three children was something he was looking forward to. He put the car into drive and sped off down the driveway and onto the street.

It was time to go home.

_**Author's Note: With this chapter comes the end of Thrill Week. I hope all that have read the story have enjoyed it. I would like to take the time to thank Tony Wilkins aka The Wilky Bar Kid and Allen Knott for providing me with valuable input in regards to various parts of the story. Without them Thrill Week would have had a much different look to it. Also, I would like to thank all who have taken the time to read the story.**_


End file.
